Lessingia tenuis

(A. Gray) Coville

Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 4: 124. 1893.

Common names: Spring lessingia
Endemic
Basionym: Lessingia ramulosa var. tenuis A. Gray in W. H. Brewer et al., Bot. California 1: 307. 1876
Synonyms: Lessingia germanorum var. parvula (Greene) J. T. Howell Lessingia germanorum var. tenuis (A. Gray) J. T. Howell
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 20. Treatment on page 455. Mentioned on page 453.

Plants 2–15 cm. Stems erect, green to tan, glabrous or villous. Leaves: basal withering by flowering; cauline margins entire or dentate to pinnately lobed, faces sometimes gland-dotted, abaxial villous to tomentose. Heads borne singly, at ends of branchlets. Involucres obconic, 4–7 mm. Phyllaries purple-tipped, faces glabrous or villous, gland-dotted; inner scarious. Disc florets 10–25; corollas yellow (occasionally pink or suffused with purple in peripheral florets; tubes with brown-purple band inside); style-branch appendages truncate-penicillate, 0.1–0.2 mm. Pappi tan, equal to or longer than cypselae. 2n = 10.


Phenology: Flowering Apr–Jul.
Habitat: Openings, chaparral, woodlands
Elevation: 300–2200 m

Discussion

Lessingia tenuis is known from the central and southern San Francisco Bay area through the South Coast Range to Ventura County.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.