Taraxacum californicum

California dandelion

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.1 · Endangered

California dandelion is a rare (CNPS 1B.1) California native perennial found in the San Bernardino Mountains in moist meadows at elevations of 1,950 to 2,400 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces yellow flowers in heads with deeply toothed ray florets. Growing with leafy stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms a robust basal rosette. Its leaves are oblanceolate, 10 to 20 centimeters long, with widely winged petioles and deeply toothed margins occasionally showing shallow lobes near the base. The fruit is pale brown with a sharply roughened surface covering the distal two-thirds of the seed body.

Habitat: Moist meadows

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 1950-2400 m

Bioregions: SnBr.

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