Our Plants (List)

Coast gumweed grows in coastal settings from Los Angeles County and the Channel Islands north into Oregon. It grows as an open patch of stems with shiny, lance-shaped leaves with toothed margins. The daisy flowers appear in abundance in spring, and more sparsely at other times. The gummy aspect of…

The matchweed is one of the many members of the sunflower family adorning California. It is most prevalent in the peninsular ranges of southern California but continues in the interior coastal ranges all the way to Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County. In Santa Clara County it has been sighted…

The white rushlily grows in moist areas of the Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada. It has been very reliable in a container here in San Jose, where I have kept it continually moist in full sun. This unusual plant has been difficult to categorize by taxonomists. It is currently combined…

This rare member of the aster family is endemic to the most northern California Channel Islands. The leaves are nearly white, a water-conserving adaptation fairly common in plants from the islands. Northern Island Haplopappus is an open, fountain-shaped shrub covered with yellow flowers for much of the spring and early…

Sawtooth goldenbush grows on the immediate coast and the Pacific side of coastal mountains from Monterey County into Baja, Mexico. It is also found on several of the Channel Islands. It grows as a rounded or mounding shrub up to six feet, though individual specimens can be considerably smaller. One…

Bigelow’s sneezeweed is found naturally in moist areas of lower foothills of the mountain ranges surrounding the Central Valley and in a few spots around the Los Angeles Basin. Its range extends into Oregon and Arizona. It grows as an expanding patch of upright stems with alternating, lance-shaped leaves. Each…

Sneezeweed thrives in or near moist areas throughout much of the state. It becomes more restricted to the coast and coastal mountains in the southern half of the state. Its range includes Catalina Island and northern Baja, Mexico. Sneezeweed has certainly become less common as our vernal wetlands have been…

California helianthella is found in most of California’s mountain ranges. It is absent in the deserts and (surprisingly) the Central Coast. In Santa Clara County one encounters this bright little sunflower on the grassy slopes of the Diablo Range. Like its near cousins in the genus Wyethia, it grows as…