Senecio sylvaticus

Woodland ragwort

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Woodland ragwort is a naturalized annual herb found in coastal California regions including the North Coast, Klamath Ranges, Central Coast, and San Francisco Bay Area in disturbed woodlands and open, sandy sites at elevations of 100 to 300 meters. Flowering from March to September, this plant produces yellow flower heads in flat-topped clusters approximately 12 to 24 millimeters wide with distinctive dark-tipped phyllaries. Growing 15 to 80 centimeters tall with a single stem densely covered in curly hairs, it has an upright, branching form. Its leaves are broadly obovate to oblong, typically 3 to 10 centimeters long, with 1 to 2 pinnate lobes and toothed margins, becoming smaller and more bract-like toward the stem tips. The fruit is small, 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long with sparsely hairy ribs.

Habitat: Disturbed woodland, open, sandy sites

Bloom period: Mar-Sep

Elevation: 100-300 m

Bioregions: NCo, KR, CCo, SnFrB

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.