About Raillardella argentea (A.Gray) A.Gray
Raillardella argentea is a species of flowering plant in the Asteraceae family, commonly known as silky raillardella. It is native to the Sierra Nevada and nearby mountain ranges of California, with its distribution extending east into Nevada, and north along the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains into Oregon. It grows in many types of dry, open mountain habitat. This plant is a rhizomatous perennial herb that grows in a clump of rosetted basal leaves. Its leaves are lance-shaped, up to 8 centimeters long, and covered in a coating of silky hairs. The plant produces an inflorescence up to around 15 centimeters tall, which holds a single solitary flower head. This flower head ranges in shape from cylindrical to somewhat bell-shaped, and is enclosed in fused outer scales of the flowers that look similar to the phyllaries found on the flower heads of many other plant species. The flower head contains many yellow disc florets, each up to 1 centimeter long, and does not produce any ray florets. Its fruit is a long, narrow achene that can reach 2 centimeters in length when its plumelike pappus is included.
