San Gabriel Mountains hulsea is an erect, branched, glandular, pubescent perennial growing to some 40" high, depending on the subspecies, of which which there are seven in southern California.  The Jepson Manual suggests that the sspp. are generally geographically segregated, which would make this ssp. gabrielensis.  The basal leaves are persistent and densely clustered, spoon-shaped, entire to lobed, ± scalloped, and wooly-villous. The flowering heads are solitary and terminal on stems that are either leafless or have a few spatulate to linear-oblong reduced leaves.  There are both ray and disk flowers present. The ray ligules are linear, yellow and tinged with red, and toothed at the apex. The corollas of the disk flowers are yellow to orange.  The fruit is a moderately-hairy achene about 1/4" long with a pappus of four papery scales.  This hulsea grows in open gravelly or sandy places, on talus slopes from 6000' to 9000', and in montane coniferous forest, blooming from June to August. These pictures were taken on Santa Clara Divide Road in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Hulsea 2) vestita 3) gabrielensis.
Pronunciation: HUL-see-a VES-ti-ta gay-bree-el-EN-sis.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.