General: Lobeleaf Groundsel (Packera multilobata) is a perennial forb that grows from a taproot. The leaves are basal, elongate, and pinnately dissected. The plant produces yellow flowers in the spring that, at lower elevations have ray and disk flowers, but at higher elevations only have disk flowers.

Lobeleaf Groundsel is a fairly common component of mountain vegetation communities in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland), Transition (Yellow Pine Forest), Canadian (Pine-Fir Forest), and Hudsonian (Bristlecone Pine Forest) life zones. Around Las Vegas, look for this species up in the mountains, such as on Mt. Charleston in the Spring Mountains and in the Sheep Range in the Desert National Wildlife Range.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Other Names: Senecio multilobatus, groundsel, ragwort, butterweed.

Plant Form: Perennial forb.

Height: To a few inches high.

Stems: None, other than the flowering stalk.

Leaves: Blade to about 5 inches, oblong, pinnately divided, woolly hairy.

Flowers: Blooms during spring and summer. Inflorescence: multiple flowerhead atop a flower stalk. Ray and disk flowers yellow. Usually 8 ray flowers ("petals"), sometimes none.

Seeds: Achene.

Habitat: Mountains; open woodlands, shrubby hillsides, sandy and rocky soils, washes.

Elevation: To about 5,000 to 10,500 feet.

Distribution: California to Colorado and New Mexico.

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