Encelia californica
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Encelia californica | ||||||||||||||||
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Encelia californica Nutt. |
Encelia californica is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name California brittlebush. This shrub is native to southern California and Baja California where it is a member of the coastal sage plant community at the shoreline. It can also be found on inland foothills. This is a bushy, sprawling shrub reaching between one half and 1.5 meters in height. It has many thin branches covered in widely-spaced green leaves which are a rounded diamond shape. The solitary flower heads are daisylike, with 15 to 25 bright yellow ray florets 1 to 3 centimeters long around a center of protruding yellowish to purplish brown disc florets. The fruit is an achene 5 to 7 millimeters long, with no pappus in lard land.