PLANT of the MONTH   ~~   NOVEMBER, 2007
updated on or about the 1st of each month

CALIFORNIA ASTER Common Name(s): Cudweed-Aster, Woolly Aster, California Aster, Lessingia, Common Corethrogyne, California Corethrogyne, California Sandaster, Common Sandaster Scientific Name: Lessingia filaginifolia, Corethrogyne filaginifolia Family: Asteraceae, Sunflower family Plant Type: Perennial flowering shrub Size: up to 3 feet high Common Habitat: chaparral, sage scrub, grasslands, oak woodlands

This month's plant is very hardy and ubiquitous, growing in a wide variety of places and elevations. It commonly blooms during the last half of the year. The dryer it is, the more scraggly the plant appears, but it still puts forth its 1-inch lavendar and yellow flowerheads. With our drought this year, it is one of the few plants to be found on the trails now still demonstrating any inflorescence.

This is a slender-looking plant with woolly, lance-shaped leaves up to 3 inches long. Butterflies are attracted to the plant, which along with its late flowering period, can make it a nice addition to your garden. The terminal flowerhead, really a conglomeration of individual flowers, is daisy-like, with yellow tubular disks flowers and lavendar-to-white ray flowers. The plant itself is a shrub but may not appear so, especially in places like dry meadows where almost the only visible parts are its flowers. The photos on this page were taken in the fields near the Reagan Ranch area of Malibu Creek State Park.

As you can see from above, this plant goes by many names. I had a hard time choosing one as the title for this month's page, every resource I researched seemed to emphasize a different name. Apparently its genus name used to be Corethrogyne, then changed to Lessingia, and is now being relisted back to Corethrogyne. Corethrogyne refers to the brush-like tips of the style. Lessingia is from the name of a German family of botanists and writers. Filaginifolia refers to having woolly leaves like the genus Filago, another member of the sunflower family. Cudweed is a term often used with various plants in the sunflower family.

Contributed by Liz Baumann

ARCHIVES of past Plants of the Month:
October 2007: Turkey Mullein (Eremocarpus setigerus)
September 2007: Wild Heliotrope (Heliotropium curassavicum)
August 2007: California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
July 2007: Calabazilla (Cucurbita foetidissima)
June 2007: Speckled Clarkia (Clarkia cylindrica)
May 2007: Prickly Poppy (Argemone munita)
April 2007: Wild Cucumber (Marah macrocarpus)
March 2007: Large-Flowered Phacelia (Phacelia grandiflora)
February 2007: Chaparral Currant (Ribes malvaceum)
January 2007: Tree Tobacco (Nicotiana glauca)
December 2006: Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum)
November 2006: Sycamore (Platanus racemosa)
October 2006: Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium)
September 2006: Vinegar Weed (Trichostema Lanceolatum)
August 2006: Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia)
July 2006: Woolly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum)
June 2006: Yucca (Yucca whipplei)
May 2006: Monkey Flower (Mimulus Species)
April 2006: Lupine (Lupinus Species)
March 2006: Ceanothus (Ceanothus Species)
February 2006: Wild Peony (Paeonia californica)
January 2006: Purple Nightshade (Solanum xanti)
December 2005: Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)

REFERENCES:
Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains, by Milt McAuley - link to Amazon.com
Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal and Chaparral Regions of Southern California, by Nancy Dale - link to Amazon.com
Roadside Plants of Southern California, by Thomas J. Belzer - link to Amazon.com
California Native Plants for the Garden, by Carol Bornstein, David Fross, and Bart O'Brien - link to Amazon.com