Layne's ragwort facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Layne's ragwort
Conservation status
Threatened (ESA)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Packera
Species:	P. layneae
Binomial name
Packera layneae (Greene) W.A.Weber & Á.Löve
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Synonyms
Senecio layneae

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Packera layneae, also called Layne's ragwort or Layne's butterweed, is a special kind of flowering plant. It is quite rare and belongs to the aster family, which includes plants like daisies and sunflowers.

Where it Lives

This plant is found only in California. It grows on the western slopes of the northern Sierra Nevada mountains. You can find small groups of these plants in Yuba, Tuolumne, and Butte Counties. It also lives in the Pine Hill Ecological Reserve in El Dorado County.

What it Looks Like

Layne's ragwort is a perennial herb. This means it's a plant with soft stems that lives for more than two years. It grows a straight stem, or a few stems, up to 70 centimeters (about 2.3 feet) tall.

Its thick leaves are shaped like wide spearheads and are a few centimeters long. These leaves grow on long stalks called petioles. Smaller leaves can be found higher up on the stems.

The plant's inflorescence (which is a cluster of flowers) has several flower heads. Each head contains many small yellow disc florets. It also has several thin yellow ray florets, which are like petals, each up to 1.6 centimeters long.

Its Home Environment

Packera layneae grows in specific natural areas. These include chaparral and oak woodlands. These habitats are part of the California Interior chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The plant often prefers to grow in serpentine soils or in weathered gabbro rock.

Why it Needs Help

Layne's ragwort faces several dangers. Because of these threats, the United States government listed it as a threatened species in 1996. This means it is protected by law.

The plant lives in chaparral and woodlands areas. These places naturally need regular wildfires to stay healthy. When people try to stop all fires, it changes the amount of sunlight the plants get. This also stops the natural clearing of old plants in the ecosystem.

Other things that threaten Layne's ragwort include new buildings, mining, and off-road vehicles driving through its habitat. Animals grazing (eating plants) and the spread of invasive plants also cause problems for this rare species.