Senecio vulgaris

Common groundsel

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Common groundsel is a naturalized annual found in California's Central West and Great Basin regions in disturbed areas at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from February to July, this plant produces small yellow disk flowers in loose clusters with distinctive black-tipped green phyllaries. Growing 10 to 60 centimeters tall from a taproot with multiple slender stems, it develops erect and initially glabrous or sparsely hairy stems. Its leaves vary from ovate to oblanceolate, ranging 2 to 10 centimeters long, with lobed or toothed edges that have fine serrations along the margins. Each plant can produce up to 20 small discoid flower heads with 55 to 65 tiny disk flowers.

Habitat: Disturbed areas

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, GB

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