SUNFLOWER V A M ELY. 



561 



Marshes, stream beds and river banks: Sierra Nevada; Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin Valley; Coast Ranges; Southern California. 

 Aug.-Oct. 



2. S. Californica Nutt. Common Golden Rod. Stem simple 

 below the terminal panicle, 2 to 4 ft. high; herbage grayish with a 

 minute rough pubescence; leaves oblong, acute at apex and tapering 

 below into a short petiole, the lower varying to oblong-obovate and 

 serrate, the upper smaller, narrow and entire; panicle usually com- 

 pact, dense, not leafy, 4 to 13 in. long, made up of raceme-like clus- 

 ters (or when elongated, secund), seldom recurved at tip, sometimes 

 spreading in age; heads 2£ to 3£ lines long; bracts of the involucre 

 oblong-linear or lanceolate, somewhat pubescent; rays 7 to 12, pale 

 yellow, about as many as the disk-flowers; achenes pubescent. 



Common on dry plains and hillsides or in the mountains through- 

 out California. Sept.-Nov. " Orojo de Leabre " of the Spanish- 

 Californians. 



3. S. elongata Nutt. Stem about 3 ft. high; very leafy; leaves 

 almost or quite glabrous, often bright green, oblanceolate, narrowed 

 to a distinct petiole, broadly oblanceolate, sharply serrate, except at 

 base, or entire; panicle dense, thyrse-like, the heads little if at all 

 secund in the raceme-like clusters; heads small, 2 lines high or less; 

 bracts of the involucre thin, linear; rays 10 to 16, narrow, usually 

 more numerous than the disk-flowers. 



San Francisco, Monterey, and doubtless elsewhere near the coast; 

 Sierra Nevada. July-Aug. 



4. S. sempervirens L. One to 3 ft. high or more, leafy to the 

 top; herbage bright green, completely glabrous; leaves lanceolate or 

 linear, somewhat firm and fleshy, the lowest varying to oblong- 

 spatulate, all entire; heads 2 to 3 lines high, the raceme-like clusters 

 collected in a dense narrow virgate panicle; bracts of involucre lan- 

 ceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, scabrous-ciliolate; rays 

 7 to 10, large; achenes minutely pubescent. 



Salt marshes, San Francisco Bay, Bolander. Rarely collected. 



•3. S. spathulata DC. Coast Golden Rod. Stems 15 to 18 in. 

 high, branched at base, decumbent, thickly clothed with broad leaf 

 bases; herbage glabrous, slightly glutinous; leaves mostly basal, 

 spatulate, rounded at apex, narrowed to a long marginal petiole, more 

 or less serrate above the middle; heads 4 lines high, almost or quite 

 as broad, the clusters aggregated in a single spike-like thyrsus ter- 

 minating the simple stems; bracts of the involucre linear-oblong to 

 oblong; rays about 7 or 8, inconspicuous, shorter than the disk; disk- 

 flowers about 14 to 16. 



Sandy hills near the coast: Point Reyes; Point Lobos; Mission 

 Hills; Pajaro Hills and southward to Monterey where first collected 

 by Haenke in 1791. 



83. LESS I NG I A Cham. 

 Annuals with alternate leaves, branching stems and commonly 



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