California Goldenbush

Ericameria ericoides ranges from Los Angeles to Sonoma counties.

Plants 30–150 cm. Stems ascending to erect, green when young, fastigiately branched, glabrous or sparsely hairy, resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; blades filiform (terete or adaxially sulcate), 3–18(–23) × 0.3–1 mm, midnerves obscure, apices acute, often mucronate, faces glabrous or hairy, gland-dotted (in circular, deep pits), resinous; axillary fascicles of 2–12 leaves, shorter than subtending leaves. Heads in cymiform to paniculiform arrays (2–9 cm wide). Peduncles 1–30 mm (bracts 4+, leaflike). Involucres subcampanulate, 5–8 × 2.5–4.5 mm. Phyllaries 16–24 in 3–5 series, mostly tan, ovate to elliptic, 2.5–7 × 0.6–1.5 mm, unequal, outer ± herbaceous or herbaceous-appendaged, mid and inner mostly chartaceous, midnerves raised, subapical resin ducts darker, ± thickened, expanded apically, (margins ciliate) apices erect, acute to acuminate or mucronate to cuspidate, abaxial faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Ray florets 2–6; laminae 4–6 × 1–2 mm. Disc florets 5–14; corollas 5.5–8 mm. Cypselae tan to brown, subcylindric, 2.5–4 mm (ribs 8–10), glabrous or hairy, more densely distally; pappi off-white to brown, 5–7 mm. 2n = 18.

Diplopappus ericoides Lessing, Linnaea 6: 117. 1831; Haplopappus ericoides (Lessing) Hooker & Arnott; H. ericoides subsp. blakei C. B. Wolf

Ericameria ericoides, known by the common names California goldenbush, mock heather, and California heathgoldenrod, is a species of flowering shrubs in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to California, where it grows in the sand dunes and coastal hills between the northern San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles area.