A handsome kind, from one to two feet high, with flower-heads nearly three-eighths of an inch across, with bright yellow rays and centers, forming a large, handsome, plume-like cluster. The stem and leaves are dull bluish-green, rather stiff and rough, the lower leaves with a few obscure teeth. This grows at the Grand Canyon. S. occidentàlis, Western Golden-rod, is smooth all over, with leafy stems, from three to five feet tall, toothless leaves, and flat-topped clusters of small, yellow, sweet-scented flowers. This grows in marshes and along the banks of streams, in California, Oregon, and Washington, blooming in summer and autumn. S. Califórnica, California Golden-rod, is from two to four feet high, with grayish-green, roughish leaves, the lower ones toothed, and small yellow flowers, forming dense pyramidal clusters, from four to thirteen inches long. This grows on dry plains and hillsides and in the mountains, throughout California and in Oregon, blooming in the autumn. It is called Orojo de Leabre by the Spanish-Californians.
Tetradymia spinosa.
Arizona Golden-rod—Solidago trinervata.
Brass Buttons—Cotula coronopifolia.
There are probably over a thousand different kinds of Senecio, very widely distributed. The name is from the Latin for "old man," in allusion to the long white hairs of the pappus, when "gone to seed." Our kinds have many common names, such as Groundsel, Ragwort, and Squaw-weed.
Ragwort
Senècio perpléxus var. díspar
Yellow
Spring, summer
Utah, Idaho
A conspicuous plant and quite handsome, though its flowers are rather untidy-looking, for, like many other Senecios, the rays do not come out evenly. It is about two feet high, with a stout, hollow, ridged stem, sparsely woolly, and dark green, thickish leaves, with shallow and uneven teeth and covered with sparse, fine, white woolly hairs, as if partially rubbed off. The flowers are over an inch across, with bright yellow rays, curling back in fading, an orange center, fading to brown, and the bracts of the involucre tipped with black. This grows in moist rich soil, in mountain valleys.
Creek Senecio
Senècio Douglásii
Yellow
Spring, summer, autumn
Southwest
A handsome bush, about three feet high, covered with many flowers, on slender flower-stalks, sticking up out of a mass of rather delicate foliage, which is often covered with white cottony wool. The flowers are an inch and three-quarters across, with bright light yellow, rather untidy rays and yellow centers. This grows in dry stream beds and on warm slopes in the foothills.
Creek Senecio—S. Douglasii.
Squaw-weed—S. perplexus var. dispar.