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 Leaves Desert Botanical Garden, Usage Rights: CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial) |  Plants Liz Makings @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Annual Similar Species: Lasthenia coronaria, L. minor, L. gracilis
General Desc:
Mainly annuals. Simple or freely branched; reddish, wiry, often hairy stems and narrow green leaves. Small daisy-like flowers often bloom at once carpeting open fields with dense masses of bright yellow blooms. Thus its common name of "goldfields".
Identification notes: Mainly annuals; stems erect or reclining, mostly hairy; leaves smooth-margined or 3 to 5 or more toothed; fruits topped by 1 to 7 translucent brown (rarely white) scales; floral bracts 4 to 16, hairy; many yellow disc flowers, 6 to 13 yellow ray flowers.
Height:
2 to nearly 16 inches
Habitat Description: Dry mesas, plains, meadows, slopes, hillsides and roadsides.
Plant Communities:
Desert Scrub, Interior Chaparral, Semidesert Grasslands, Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 1500 - 4500 feet
Color:
Yellow
Shape:
Daisy or dandelion-like not in clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
Mar - May
Description:
Flower heads (to 1 inch) have 4 to 16 hairy leaf-like bracts below them. Each head grows singly at the stem top and consists of many tiny tube-like disc flowers forming a dome in the center surrounded by a fringe of 6 to 13 strap-shaped ray flowers.
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Narrow
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Opposite
Leaves Clasp:
N
Hairs:
Leaves and stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Stems may be single or branched and vary greatly in height due to the amount of rainfall. They're often upright but can grow flat on the ground. Leaves are hairy more often at the leaf base, have smooth or toothed margins and are 3/8 to 2-3/4 inches long.
Fruit Color: Black, gray, silverish-gray
Fruit Type: Achene
Fruit Notes: Fruit is 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, dry, flattened, linear to club-shaped and may be smooth or hairy. It has a tuft of 1 to 7 narrow, usually brown, glassy, hair-like bristly appendages (scales) on its tip which aids in its dispersal by wind.
Seed Notes: The fruit contains a single seed which is not released when the fruit reaches maturity. The seed is not fused to the wall of the fruit enabling it to separate more easily.
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