Crowned or royal goldfields

Ptilomeris coronaria Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 382. 1841; Baeria californica (Hooker) K. L. Chambers; B. coronaria (Nuttall) A. Gray

Annuals, to 40 cm (herbage sweetly scented). Stems erect, branched distally, usually glandular-puberulent (often with longer non-glandular hairs as well). Leaves linear, 15–60 × 0.5–5 mm, (not fleshy) margins entire or 1–2-pinnately lobed, faces hairy. Involucres hemispheric to obconic, 4–7 mm. Phyllaries 6–14, lanceolate to ovate, hairy. Receptacles conic, smooth, muricate, or pitted, hairy. Ray florets 6–15; (corollas yellow) laminae linear-oblong or oblong, 3–10 mm. Anther appendages elliptic, acute (style apices ± deltate with apical tufts of hairs and subapical fringes of shorter hairs). Cypselae black, linear to narrowly clavate, to 2.5 mm, hairy; pappi usually of 5–6+ lanceolate to ovate scales (1–5 uniaristate), sometimes of 4–5 subulate, aristate scales, or 0. 2n = 8, 10.

Flowering Mar–May. Sunny, open grassy areas; 0–700 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Pappus, head size, and branching pattern vary in Lasthenia coronaria. Two types of pappi are often found within a head and sometimes in different individuals of a population. The most distinctive feature of this species is its glandular herbage, which produces a characteristic sweet scent not present in any other lasthenia.