Smooth golden fleece
Urospermum dalechampii
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
The daisy with large, very pale butter-yellow flowers, almost cream, with a dark centre, opening solitary atop an almost bare stem on verges all over the south.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Scrubland · Town and roadside
Also known asMediterranean cat's ear
How to tell it
Large heads, three to five centimetres, always solitary at the stem tip, of an unmistakable pale yellow, with a darker centre and an often greyish underside. The bracts are fused into a cup at the base, which is the genus's mark. White latex.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use to recommend
It is among the most visible plants on southern verges between March and May, and the pale yellow tone is enough to identify it from inside a car.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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