''Lessingia hololeuca'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

known by the common name woollyhead lessingia.

Distribution

It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where it is known from several locations around the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

and adjacent portions of the

Sacramento Valley , photo =Sacramento Riverfront.jpg , photo_caption= Sacramento , map_image=Map california central valley.jpg , map_caption= The Central Valley of California , location = California, United States , coordinates = , boundaries = Sierra Nevada (ea ...

and North Coast Ranges. It grows in many types of local habitat.

Description

''Lessingia hololeuca'' is an annual herb varying in maximum size and shape from flat and just a few centimeters high to an erect 40 centimeters tall. It is mostly woolly in texture. The lower leaves approach 13 centimeters long and may have several deep lobes; the upper leaves much smaller and unlobed. The

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

appear singly or in crowded clusters. Each head has a bullet-shaped involucre lined with woolly, purple-tipped phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but many funnel-shaped pink, lavender, or purple disc florets with lobes that resemble ray florets. The fruit is an

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

with a whitish pappus of bristles.

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment - Lessingia hololeucaUSDA Plants Profile: Lessingia hololeucaFlora of North America''Lessingia hololeuca'' - Photo gallery
hololeuca Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Astereae-stub