Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Agoseris retrorsa is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name spearleaf agoseris. It is native to western North America from Washington to Utah to Baja California, where it grows in many types of habitat, including chaparral, scrub, and coniferous forest. It is a perennial herb forming a base of leaves about a number of erect, thick, wool-coated flower clusters up to half a meter in height. The narrow leaves are linear to lance-shaped, and spearlike with curving toothlike lobes along the edges. The flower cluster bears a single flower head which is several centimeters wide when fully open. It is lined with woolly, pointed phyllaries which are green, often with reddish purple longitudinal streaks or stripes. The flower head contains many golden yellow ray florets, the outer ones usually darker in color. The fruit is an achene with a plumelike pappus of white bristles.

Plant type

Perennial herb

Size

2 ft Tall

Calscape icon
Color

Yellow

Sun

Full Sun, Partial Shade

Site type

Dry places

Plant communities

Red Fir Forest, Yellow Pine Forest

Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

0 confirmed and 1 likely

Confirmed Likely

Heliolonche modicella