Bush Sunflower, Encelia californica

About Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica) 58 Nurseries Carry This Plant

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Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica) is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. This shrub is native to Southern California and Baja California, where it is a member of the coastal sage plant community at the shoreline. It can also be found on inland foothills in the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges.

It is drought adapted but not frost tolerant, and it needs full sun.

It is a bushy, sprawling shrub reaching between 1.5 and 4 feet in height. It has many thin branches covered in widely-spaced green leaves, which are a rounded diamond shape. It blooms from February to June, attracting butterflies, bees, and other insects. The solitary flower heads are daisylike, with 15 to 25 bright yellow ray florets 1/2 to 1 inch long around a center of protruding yellowish to purplish brown disc florets.

The fruit is an achene about 1/4 inch long, with no pappus.

This plant is very fast-growing and easy to grow. It is beautiful in winter and spring with its abundant yellow flowers, and it readily reseeds and will quickly spread throughout a landscape. This plant is fast growing, easy, and will bloom any time it has moisture and moderate temperatures. It makes a good cut flower. There is one horticultural variety, known as 'El Dorado.' Probably one of the easiest ways to add color to a garden in Southern California.

Downsides of this plant are: it can become invasive and choke out other plants; it is semi-summer deciduous, often looking weedy and almost dead in the summer and fall; and it is fairly short-lived. It's often planted to start a native garden, then replaced with longer-lived shrubs over time. Can help jumpstart an area to change the soil ecology to help mazanitas and ceanothus plants.

Plant Description

Plant Type

Shrub

Size

1.6 - 5 ft tall
3 - 7 ft wide

Form

Mounding, Rounded

Growth Rate

Fast

Dormancy

Summer Semi-Deciduous,

Fragrance

Fragrant - Pleasant, Slight

Flower Color

Brown, Purple, Yellow

Flowering Season

Winter, Spring

Wildlife Supported

Numerous insects are attracted to the flowers, including butterflies and bees. Small birds such as goldfinches are attracted to the seed heads.
Bird gardens

Butterflies & moths hosted ( 2 confirmed

, 1 likely * ) SHOW ALL

Fatal Metalmark Calephelis nemesisCalephelis nemesis

Dwarf Tawny Wave Cyclophora nanariaCyclophora nanaria

Orange Tortrix Moth Argyrotaenia franciscanaArgyrotaenia franciscana

Landscaping Information

Sun

Part Shade, Full Sun

Moisture

Very Low

Summer Irrigation

Max 1x / week once established

Nurseries

Carried by 58

Ease of Care

Very Easy

Cold Tolerance

Tolerates cold to 30° F

Soil Drainage

Fast, Medium, Slow

Soil Description

Tolerates a wide variety of soils. Tolerates Sodic Soil. Soil PH: 6 - 8

Common uses

Groundcovers, Bank Stabilization, Bird Gardens, Butterfly Gardens, Bee Gardens

Companion Plants

Ceanothus tomentosus, California Sagebrush, Sugar Sumac, Lemonade Sumac, Coyote Broom, Chaparral Mallow, Sagebrush (Artemisia), Black Sage, White Sage, Chamise, Coyote Brush, California Buckwheat, Sticky Monkeyflower, Woolly Bluecurls, Scrub Oaks, Toyon, Dudleya spp, Yucca spp, various cactus species

Maintenance

No pest problems.. After it goes semi-deciduous in the summer, this plant can be cut to the ground and will come back nicely. Because of its tendency to sprawl or become floppy, it can also be pruned after flowering to encourage more flowers and more compact growth

Propagation?

By seeds (self-seeds readily), softwood cuttings

Sunset Zones?

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14*, 15, 16, 18, 19*, 20*, 21*, 22*, 23*, 24*,

Natural Setting

Site Type

Slopes, bluffs, foothills and canyons primarily on the coastal side of the mountains from San Luis Obispo County to San Diego County and into northwestern Baja. Typically found on drier, south or west facing slopes as part of coastal sage scrub.

Climate

Annual Precipitation: 4.4" - 35.5", Summer Precipitation: 0.15" - 2.65", Coldest Month: 39.9" - 61.4", Hottest Month: 62.5" - 88.8", Humidity: 0.82" - 42.79", Elevation: -1648" - 5439"

Alternative Names

Common Names: California Brittlebush, California Encelia

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Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links: Jepson eFlora Taxon Page CalPhotos Wikipedia Calflora

Bush Sunflower

Encelia californica

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Bush SunflowerEncelia californica

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Bush Sunflower

Encelia californica