Chaparral ragwort facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chaparral ragwort |
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Senecio aphanactis, also known as chaparral ragwort, rayless ragwort, or California groundsel, is a type of flowering plant. It belongs to the aster family, which includes many well-known flowers like sunflowers and daisies. This plant grows for about one year.
Where It Grows
This plant is native to California, growing as far north as the San Francisco Bay Area. You can also find it south into Baja California in Mexico.
It likes to grow in dry areas near the coast. This includes places like coastal sage scrub, which are dry shrublands. It also grows in foothill oak woodlands and alkali flats, which are flat, dry areas with salty soil.
What It Looks Like
Senecio aphanactis usually grows to be about 10 to 20 centimeters tall. That's roughly the length of a pen or a small ruler. It grows from a small taproot, which is like a main root that goes straight down into the ground. Most of the plant is smooth, but the top parts, like the flowers, might have soft, woolly hairs.
The leaves are long and narrow, or shaped like a spear. They often have wavy or lobed edges. Each leaf is usually 2 to 4 centimeters long. Sometimes, the leaves wrap around the stem at their base.
The flower head is shaped like an urn, which is a type of vase. It is covered in special leaf-like parts called phyllaries. The top of the flower head opens just a little bit. Inside, you can see many small yellow disc florets. Sometimes, there are also one or more tiny yellow ray florets, which look like small petals, but these can be missing.
After the flower blooms, it produces a long, thin fruit called an achene. This fruit is covered in gray hairs and has a pappus on top. A pappus is a tuft of long, white bristles that helps the fruit float away in the wind, spreading the seeds.
See also
In Spanish: Senecio aphanactis para niños
