Tanacetum vulgare

Common tansy

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Common tansy is a naturalized perennial herb found in northern coastal California, northern Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, southern Coast Ranges, San Bernardino Mountains, and Modoc Plateau in disturbed areas at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in compact flat-topped clusters with 20 to 200 small flower heads. Growing 40 to 150 centimeters tall with erect, smooth or sparsely hairy stems emerging from underground rhizomes, it develops a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are widely oblong or oval, deeply pinnately divided with 4 to 13 pairs of lance-linear lobes, each with serrated edges and ranging 4 to 20 centimeters long. The plant forms dense clusters with numerous small yellow disk flowers, creating a distinctive appearance in disturbed habitats.

Habitat: Uncommon. Escape from cultivation in disturbed areas

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, CaRH, n SNH, SCoRO, SnBr, MP

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