Thymophylla pentachaeta var. belenidium

Five needled thymophylla

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Five needled thymophylla is a California native perennial found in eastern San Diego County, eastern San Jacinto Mountains, eastern Mojave Desert, southeastern Desert Mountains, and western Sonoran Desert in dry roadsides, gravelly slopes, desert scrub, and desert woodland at elevations of 450 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from April to June and September to October, this plant produces yellow ray flowers with small heads approximately 3.5 to 6 millimeters wide. Growing with many slender, very leafy stems 10 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms dense clusters of delicate vegetation. Its leaves are finely divided into 3 to 5 linear lobes, each 1 to 2 centimeters long and slightly hairy. The fruit is small, 2 to 3 millimeters long, with a distinctive pappus of 10 scales that are partially divided into fine awns.

Habitat: dry roadsides, gravelly slopes, desert scrub, desert woodland

Bloom period: (Mar)Apr-Jun, Sep--Oct

Elevation: 450-1700 m

Bioregions: e SCo (introduced), e SnJt, e DMoj, se DMtns, w DSon

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