Wyethia angustifolia

California compassplant

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

California compassplant is a native perennial found in northwestern California, the northern Sierra Nevada Foothills, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, central western California, and the Modoc Plateau in grassland habitats at elevations below 2,050 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 15 to 45 millimeters long in large heads up to 4 centimeters wide. Growing 30 to 90 centimeters tall with rough-hairy stems, it develops a robust, upright form with distinctive foliage. Its basal leaves are 10 to 50 centimeters long, lance-linear to oblanceolate, with a rough, sometimes varnished-looking surface that is short-strigose or scabrous. The plant produces fruits 7 to 8 millimeters long with 1 to 4 awn-tipped scales.

Habitat: Grassland

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 2050 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SN, GV, CW, MP

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