''Monolopia major'' 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 cupped monolopia.

Distribution

''Monolopia major'' is endemic to Central California with known extant populations in the Inner North Coast Ranges and Inner South Coast Ranges. The species is frequently confused with ''

Monolopia lanceolata ''Monolopia lanceolata'', the hillside daisy or common monolopia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to the southern half of California, where it grows in many types of habitat, including coastal and valley gr ...

'', with the two being very similar in appearance. The two can be distinguished by ''M. major'' having fused phyllaries - fused into a cup; most obvious at after senescence and fruits have dispersed. In comparison, ''M. lanceolata'' has free phyllaries. Due to woolly hairs on the phyllaries obscuring the free phyllary margins, they may appear fused, but gentle separation reveals that they are free. Other differences in the species are that the rays of ''M. major'' appear a pure, vibrant yellow, whereas the rays of ''M. lanceolata'' are a lighter yellow that often appears faded near the tips. ''Monolopia major'' has very high to strict edaphic affinity for clay soils, particularly vertic clay (

smectite A smectite (from ancient Greek ''σμηκτός'' smektos 'lubricated'; ''σμηκτρίς'' smektris 'walker's earth', 'fuller's earth'; rubbing earth; earth that has the property of cleaning) is a mineral mixtures of various swelling sheet sil ...

;

montmorillonite Montmorillonite is a very soft phyllosilicate group of minerals that form when they precipitate from water solution as microscopic crystals, known as clay. It is named after Montmorillon in France. Montmorillonite, a member of the smectite group, ...

) soils. ''M. lanceolata'' typically may grow on all soil textures from sandy to clayey, but ''M. major'' only grows on clayey soils. ''M. major'' appears to only occur where average annual precipitation is greater than about 11 inches per year (chaparral, blue oak woodland), whereas ''M. lanceolata'' can occur at average annual precipitation greater than 11 inches per year, but also at precipitation levels as low as 6 inches per year (San Joaquin Valley Desert; saltbrush scrub). Most known large populations of ''M. major'' are distributed around

San Benito Mountain San Benito Mountain is the highest mountain in the Diablo Range of California. The summit is at an elevation of . The rock is composed of asbestos (chrysotile), an ultramafic rock. It weathers to produce serpentine soils with characteristically ...

in southern

San Benito County San Benito County (; ''San Benito'', Spanish for "St. Benedict"), officially the County of San Benito, is a county located in the Coast Range Mountains of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,209. The coun ...

Description

''Monolopia major'' is an annual herb producing a slender, sometimes branching stem up to about 80 centimeters tall. It is usually somewhat woolly in texture. 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 ...

s at the ends of stem branches bear small hemispheric

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 ...

with fused

phyllaries In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one or ...

. The golden, yellow, or cream-colored ray florets are up to 2 centimeters long and have three-lobed tips. They surround a center of many disc 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 ...

about 2 to 4 millimeters long.

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6901713 Madieae Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California chaparral and woodlands Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of the Central Valley (California) Natural history of the San Francisco Bay Area Flora without expected TNC conservation status