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