Tehachapi Ragwort

Packera ionophylla is known only from the San Bernardino, San Gabriel, and Tehachapi mountains and a population on Alamo Mountain in eastern Ventura County.

Perennials, 15–30+ cm; taprooted (caudices erect) or rhizomatous (rhizomes branched). Stems usually 1, rarely 2–3, clustered, irregularly arachnoid-tomentose to lanate-tomentose or glabrescent. Basal leaves (and proximal cauline, relatively turgid) petiolate; blades broadly ovate or lyrate (± pinnately lobed, lateral lobes 1–3 pairs, smaller than terminals), 10–30+ × 10–20+ mm, bases tapering to cuneate, ultimate margins subentire or crenate to coarsely dentate (abaxial faces tomentose). Cauline leaves gradually reduced (sessile; bractlike, entire). Heads 3–6 in cymiform arrays. Peduncles bracteate, irregularly tomentose. Calyculi inconspicuous. Phyllaries (8–)13 or 21, green, 7–10+ mm, densely tomentose proximally, glabrescent distally (tips hair-tufted). Ray florets 8–13; corolla laminae 8–10 mm. Disc florets 60–75+; corolla tubes 2.5–4 mm, limbs 3.5–5 mm. Cypselae 2–2.5 mm, glabrous; pappi 5–7 mm. 2n = 46.

Senecio ionophyllus Greene, Pittonia 2: 20. 1889; S. ionophyllus var. intrepidus Greenman

Packera ionophylla is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Tehachapi ragwort. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the Tehachapi Mountains, the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, and Alamo Mountain near the Grapevine. It grows in mountain forest habitat.

It is a perennial herb producing one or more erect stems up to 30 to 50 centimeters tall from a rhizome or taproot and caudex unit. It is slightly hairy to woolly or cobwebby in texture. The thick leaves have lobed blades one or two centimeters long borne on petioles. The inflorescence holds one or more flower heads containing many disc florets and usually several ray florets, though these may be absent.