California brittlebush

Encelia californica, commonly known as California brittlebush, California encelia or coast sunflower, is a much-branched evergreen subshrub of the family Asteraceae, native to the coastal sage scrub and chaparral of southern California and the Pacific slope of Baja California, where it grows on dry rocky slopes, bluffs and disturbed ground from sea level to about 600 m elevation. The plant typically forms a rounded mound 0.5–1.5 m tall and as broad, with brittle, slender, somewhat resinous stems that exude a clear sap when broken. The leaves are alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 3–7 cm long, entire to slightly toothed, glabrous to sparsely strigose, and dark green (contrasting with the silvery foliage of the related E. farinosa). The flowering heads are solitary on long, slender, naked peduncles raised above the foliage and are 4–6 cm across, with 15–25 bright yellow ray florets and a contrasting dark brown to purplish-black disc of tubular florets. The involucral bracts are linear-lanceolate and pubescent. Fruits are flattened, ciliate achenes lacking a pappus. Flowering occurs mainly in spring.