''Jensia yosemitana'' 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 Yosemite tarweed. 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 has a scattered distribution across the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

and its foothills. Some of the populations lie inside

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

. ''Jensia yosemitana'' is an annual herb with a slender stem up to 25 centimeters (10 inches) tall. The hairy to bristly leaves are 1 to 3 centimeters (0.4-1.2 inches) long and located all along the stem. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

produces

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 ...

on thin, threadlike peduncles. The head generally has 2-8 yellow ray florets each about 2 millimeters (0.08 inches) long and 1-7 yellow disc florets with black anthers. 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 bristly or scaly pappus.Flora of North America, ''Jensia yosemitana'' (Parry ex A. Gray) B. G. Baldwin. 1999
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References

External links

United states Department of Agriculture Plants ProfileCalphotos Photo gallery, University of California
Madieae Endemic flora of California Plants described in 1882 Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Madieae-stub