Golden fleece
The Butte Fire made this plant's decade. It came up through the burn and it is now one of the commonest shrubs on the land.
In brief
Ericameria arborescens, Asteraceae.
- Evergreen shrub, over 2 m
- Endemic to California
- Flowers August to October
- Fruit a cypsela carrying a pappus
Where it grows
Klamath ranges, North Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada foothills and South Coast Ranges, in woodland, open forest and chaparral, and above all on recent burns.
When it blooms
August to October, in dense clusters of small golden heads with no ray petals. Then it holds tawny seed-fluff through the winter, which is not the same thing as flowering.
Seed and fruit
A cypsela with a pappus of fine bristles. The white winter fluff is seed, not flower, and the difference matters: it cost this site three months of its bloom calendar before anyone looked closely.
Here
Photographed in flower with a honey bee working it on September 7, 2025 and at sunset on October 15, 2021, and in seed on November 7, 2020, December 5, 2022 and February 5, 2021. The thread-like leaves are the field mark. Two plant-identification apps read this species as an Australian shrub, twice.
In seed, which is not in flower
The tawny fluff it carries through the winter is pappus, and it fooled this site into claiming three bloom months it had not earned. Beside it here is toyon in fruit, which is a genuine winter display and a different thing again.
By Yggdrasil Springs
Next in the series
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