#eriophyllum

Eriophyllum lanatum - Woolly Sunflower

July 2024

Within the realms of botany and mycology there are some groups of species which are perceived as being of relatively low value. In mushrooms they are called "Little Brown Mushrooms" or LBMs, while in flowering plants there are "Damn Yellow Composites" or DYCs. At the time I photographed this flower, I didn't try very hard to identify it after seeing picture after picture of yellow composite flowers from Asteraceae (sunflower family) left me frustrated. I saved the photos as being merely "Damn Yellow Composite" and left them at that. Almost 8 or 9 months later I finally came back around to it and with tools I am more comfortable using these days (inaturalist and calflora) it was a less daunting task though it still took me a while to peg it as a very common plant: Eriophyllum confertiflorum, the golden yarrow. Both its scientific name and common name are fairly descriptive, the genus Eriophyllum meaning "wooly-leaved" and confertiflorum being "densely flowered," while the common epithet marks its appearance as similar to a yellow-flowered yarrow. Eriophyllum confertiflorum is a very tolerant and very widespread plant, perhaps owed to its high variability which results in many recognized variant forms. It can be found growing just north of San Francisco all the way down through half of Baja California.

Weedy compost made a great meadow

I think I've posted several versions of this but it keeps bringing me joy