Scientific Family
Asteraceae
Synonyms
Senecio eremophilus var. eremophilus, S. glaucifolius
Other common names
cutleaf groundsel
desert groundsel
dryland ragwort
Elmer's butterweed
Plant type
Forbs and Subshrubs
Origin
Native
Lifecycle
Perennial
Similar species
Senecio eremophilus var. kingii, S. eremophilus var. macdougalii, S. fendleri
Height
To about 3-1/3 feet tall
Riparian
Yes
Leafy perennial with 1 to several loosely clustered reddish or purplish stems. Deeply notched leaves up to 5 inches long grow around the base and up the stem. Many rounded clusters of yellow daisy-like flower heads about 1 inch wide grow at the stem tops.
Stems 1 to several, often reddish or purplish; herbage without hairs or nearly so; leaves pinnatifid or somewhat palmately lobed, basal leaves wither before flowers appear, yellow flower heads in rounded clusters of 3 to 12, nodding especially when young.
Habitat
Found in sandy, rocky soils in meadows, streamsides, damp thickets (dense groups of bushes or trees), mountain slopes, moist coniferous forests, open woodlands, roadsides and disturbed habitats.
Plant Community
Riparian
Pinyon Juniper Woodlands
Montane Conifer Forest
Disturbed Areas
Low elevation
6500
High elevation
12000
Flower Characteristics
The flower head consists of about 8 narrow petal-like ray florets surrounding a center of many tube-like disc florets which elongate and turn brown when mature. Below the flower heads are about 8 or 13 thin leaf-like bracts with green or black tips.
Flower color
Yellow, ages to a brown center
Flower shape
Daisy or dandelion-like
Tubular
No
First bloom month
July
Last bloom month
September
Flower clusters
Rounded
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Leaves have jagged edges or deep lobes. Upper leaves are often stalkless with a feather-like shape. Lower leaves often have stalks and a lobed somewhat hand-like shape. Leaves are reduced in size up the stem. Basal leaves wither before the plant blooms.
Leaf type
Simple
Leaf color
Green
Leaf shape
Pinnatifid
Leaf margin
Toothed
Leaves clasp
No
Leaf hairs
None
Spines
No
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
The fruit is dry, oblong, smooth to minutely hairy along its veins and has a tuft of 30 to 80 white to straw-colored, silky, hairlike bristles at its tip (pappus). When ripe, the fruits in the flower head form a small, fuzzy, dandelion-like "puffball".
Fruit type
Achene
The fruit contains 1 seed. It does not open to release the seed when ripe. The gray hairs on the surface of the seed as well as the tuft of hairlike bristles at the tip of the fruit aid in the wind dispersal of the seeds.