Flowers bisexual; disk flower corolla yellow, club-shaped with short recurved lobes and long, protruding style appendages. Usually 5 but up to 13 ray flowers, and 4- 13 disk flowers per head. Santiago Oaks Regional Park, Orange, CA. 7-3-11. © Joan Avise

California Matchweed
(San Joaquin Snakeweed)

Gutierrezia californica

A 1-2 ft. shrubby, diffusely branched yellow-flowered perennial, named for the size of the new stems which arise from a woody base. Occasional on dry grassy hillsides at Chino Hills, West Coyote Hills, San Joaquin Hills, mountain foothills, and Santa Ana Mountains (Roberts). Fruit a hairy achene. Pappus with 10-12 chaffy scales.  Some stems die back after flowering but others will flower the next season.  The flowering season is long and responsive to seasonal rain (Clarke). Jepson Manual shows flowering May-November, but after rain, you can find blooms from last year's growth even in January! The plants are toxic to livestock. 

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