Eriophyllum latilobum (Flowering Plants)

Species Description

The San Mateo Woolly Sunflower is in the Aster (Asteraceae) family. The type specimen was collected in San Mateo County in 1903, although it was not fully described as a species until 1915. It grows on sparsely wooded slopes and road embankments associated with live oak woodland. It is a perennial subshrub growing to 5 dm tall, flowering from May to June. The bright yellow showy sunflowers are on long stalks (peduncles), which distinguishes it from a close relative, the golden-yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum) that has its flowers in closely congested flower heads.

The San Mateo Woolly Sunflower is “endemic” to San Mateo County, which means it cannot be found naturally anywhere else in the world. A combination of threats has caused the population sizes to decline in recent years. Some of these threats include scraping along exposed roads adjacent to plant populations, and alteration of habitat due to required work on City sewer lines. Furthermore, the San Mateo Woolly Sunflower grows on steep slopes that are subject to mudslides and erosion.

Historically the San Mateo Woolly Sunflower was known to have four occurrences in San Mateo County. Two of these are probably the result of misidentification and two are still extant populations. One of these populations was recently discovered in 2004 and is a very large population within the San Francisco Peninsula Watershed land, which is within the GGNP’s legislative boundary.

The San Mateo Woolly Sunflower was protected as endangered in 1995 under the Federal Endangered Species Act. Today the species still faces obstacles to recovery, but the discovery of a new large population within protected lands should help to keep this species viable.

Conservation Action Item

Spread the word:
Tell the Sunflower's story and convince five people to Join Big Year

The San Mateo Woolly Sunflower’s precarious status, along with many of the GGNP’s endangered species, is not widely known. One of the first steps in conservation is education, because it is difficult to protect what you don’t know. Spread the word about the San Mateo Woolly Sunflower and the Endangered Species Big Year: tell the Sunflower’s story and convince five people to join the Big Year!

Big Year Competitors have reported 2 sightings and taken 2 actions to help this species recover so far this year.

Trips

• None scheduled