Layia platyglossa - Tidy Tips

Tidy-tips is an annual wildflower, native to western North America. It is an annual, glandular, daisy like plant with narrow, rough hairy leaves. The height of the entire plant is less than 1 foot tall, roughly around 4–12 inches (10–30 cm) wide. The roots are usually taproots, sometimes fibrous. The leaves at the upper part of the stem are short and have a pilous texture. The leaves at the basal part of the stem can be toothed to pinnate shaped with rotund short lobes. The lower leaves are generally lobed and the upper leaves are entire. Leaves usually alternate or opposite, and the blades are usually simple, rarely compound. The flower heads are composed of five to eighteen yellow ray flowers with white tips and many central yellow disk flowers. Its outer ray flowers are bright golden yellow with distinct, sharp-margined white tips. The bracts tips are rounded and involucre 6–12 mm high. The flower is 4–6 mm long. The ray flowers are 3-3.8 mm long and the disk flowers are 2.8–5 mm long. The ligules are 6–15 mm long and 5–10 mm wide. The florets are bisexual, pistillate, functionally staminate or neuter. The sepals are highly modified. Pollination is done by insects. The fruits are usually dry with thick, tough pericarps, sometimes rostrate and/or winged. Dispersion is done by the help from pappi (dispersal of fruit by wind). Seeds are one per fruit, embryos straight. Tidy Tips is cultivated as an ornamental plant.