Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Tetradymia comosa is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, known by the common name hairy horsebrush. The plant is native to the Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges in Southern California and northern Baja California. It grows in local chaparral and woodlands habitats, such as coastal sage scrub and montane chaparral and woodlands. Tetradymia comosa is a whitish woolly shrub growing 30 centimetres (12 in) to over 1 metre (3. 3 ft) tall. The leaves are lance-shaped and up to 6 centimeters long, becoming rigid as they age, sometimes with their tips hardening to spines. The inflorescence bears three to six flower heads which are each enveloped in five or six thick phyllaries coated in white woolly hairs. Each head contains five to nine yellow or brownish flowers each around a centimeter long. The fruit is a small, hairy achene.

Plant type

Shrub

Size

1 - 4 ft Tall

Sun

Full Sun

Plant communities

Chaparral, Coastal Sage Scrub

Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

0 confirmed and 1 likely

Confirmed Likely

Hemileuca burnsi