Filago californica Nutt.Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)Native
California Filago |
April Photo
Plant Characteristics:
White wooly annual, erect, simple or branched from base, not forked,
0.5-3.5 dm. high, leafy, grayish to green, cobwebby; lvs. 0.8-2 cm. long,
oblong-linear to subspatulate, sessile; heads ovoid, 3-4 mm. high scarcely
exceeded by the involucrate lvs.; bracts of outer pistillate fls. 8-10, woolly,
boatshaped, with hyaline tip, the inner ones thinner and less woolly, the inner
florets ca. 12-20, only ca. 2-4 often perfect; inner aks. papillose, falling in
rings.
Habitat:
Common in dry open places, on burns, etc.; cismontane s. Calif. below
3500 ft.; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, etc.; occasional on deserts in Creosote
Bush Scrub; to Utah, Ariz., L. Calif.; on several of the s. Calif. islands.
March-June.
Name:
Latin, filum, thread, referring
to the hairs. (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 166). Californica,
indicates that the plant was first found in Calif.
(Dale 13).
General:
Uncommon in the study area. Common
on the northerly portion of North Star Beach between the willows and the bluffs
and photographed there. (my comments). About 12 spp. of temperate and
warm-temp. Eurasia, Afr., Am. The
four species treated here are placed in genus Oglifa
by Chrtek and Holub. (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 166).
Text Ref:
Hickman, Ed. 268; Munz, Flora So.
Calif. 166; Roberts 11.
Photo Ref:
April 1 83 # 19; April 3 83 # 21; April-May 85 # 3..
Identity: by F. Roberts.
First Found: April 1983.
Computer Ref: Plant Data 169.
Have plant specimen.
Last edit 7/30/05.
April Photo April Photo