A member of the Asteraceae or Sunflower Family, the false wooly daisy bears the scientific name Syntrichopappus fremontii. This annual herb is also known as Yellowray Fremont’s Gold. It grows to a mature height of one to four inches. Stems are covered with short hairs and are many branched. Leaves are spoon-shaped, linear, about a half inch long, and have three teeth near the tip. Flower heads have five yellow ray flowers surrounding several disk flowers and five hardened, boat-shaped phyllaries with dry, thin margins that partly enclose the ray akenes. The ray flowers have three lobes or teeth at their tips.
The fruit is a more or less pubescent, narrowly club-shaped achene with a pappus of 6-10 chaff-like scales.
False Woolly Daisy grows throughout the southwestern states often in association with Creosote Bush and/or Joshua Tree in sandy or gravelly soil at elevations ranging from 2000 to 7500 feet. It is also found in western Mexico.
It flowers form from May to June.
This plant is often confused with Wallace’s Woolly Daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei). The key difference is that this plant has only five ray flowers, whereas E. wallacei has eight to ten ray flowers.