''Lessingia nemaclada'' 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 ...

known by the common name slenderstem lessingia. 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 els ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, where it is widespread across the northern parts of the Central Valley and adjacent foothills and mountains, including the

Sierra Nevada foothills :''See Sierra Nevada for general information about the mountain range in the United States.'' The ecology of the Sierra Nevada, located in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, is diverse and complex: the plants and animals are a significant ...

and the mountains of 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 Gov ...

. It grows in a variety of habitats. This annual herb is quite variable in appearance. It may be petite and just a few centimeters tall, or over half a meter in erect height with many spreading branches. It is generally glandular, with knobby glands most easily seen on the leaves, and often hairy to woolly. The upper leaves are small and unlobed, and the lower leaves are larger and sometimes lobed or toothed but wither early. 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 small clusters. Each head is lined with hairless, glandular

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 ...

. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets and just a few pale purple, pinkish, or nearly white funnel-shaped disc florets with narrow lobes. 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 op ...

with a whitish pappus of bristles which may be fused into points.

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
nemaclada Endemic flora of California Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Astereae-stub