[Members of the Sunflower Family with Flower Heads like Sunflowers or Daisies]
Common Spring-gold, Gold Star, Gold Stars, Spring-gold, Spring Gold
Crocidium multicaule
The photo above shows gold stars blooming on scablands along the main east-west access road through the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.........April 11, 2017.
Characteristics:
Gold stars are a small annual to 6 or 7 inches tall. The leaves are fleshy
and mostly basal, entire margined to coarsely toothed, and spatulate in shape.
The basal leaves are up to 2.5 cm long and 1 cm wide. The flower stem is single
or occasionally branched into two or three stems at the base of the leaves.
I've notice vigorously branched and almost bushy plants in areas burnt the previous
year.
The flower heads are daisy-like, with 5-13 (usually 8) yellow rays 4-10 mm
in length, and numerous yellow disk flowers. The disk is typically about 1 cm
wide.
Gold stars bloom from March into May.
Habitat:
Gold stars are found on moist banks and fields, sandy plains, and cliff ledges
which dry during the summer.
Range:
Gold stars are found from Vancouver Island south through Puget Sound and west
of the Cascades to northern California and southwestern Oregon. East of the
Cascades it extends up the Columbia River Gorge to the western base of the Blue
Mts in Walla Walla County, WA and Umatilla County, OR. It also extends northward
into the Yakima River basin into Kittitas County, WA, and southward to northern
Deschutes County, OR.
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Numerous gold stars blooming together on slopes above the John Day River along the Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park and adjacent BLM lands......March 14, 2024.
Gold stars in bloom with Gorman's salt and pepper (Lomatium gormanii) about 3 miles downstream along the Pinnacles Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park.....March 22, 2019.
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Gold stars blooming enmasse atop a small butte next to the Esau Corral at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.........February 20, 2016.
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Close-up images of the stem leaves, woolly hairs on the lower stem and bracts immediately below the floral head of gold stars as seen about 1 mile east of Celilo, OR..........March 6, 2006.
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The photo at left shows a mass of gold stars on the shrub steppe at Upper Cowiche Canyon, a BLM site on the western outskirts of Yakima, WA............March 28, 2007. The photo at right shows numerous gold stars blooming together on slopes above the John Day River along the Hard Stone Trail, Cottonwood Canyon State Park and adjacent BLM lands......March 26, 2021.
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Close-ups of the flower heads of gold stars as seen at left on the slopes above Canyon Creek in the Klickitat State Wildlife Area of south-central Washington...........May 8, 2009. Gold stars bloomingat right on scablands along one of the north-south access roads through the Bickleton Ridge Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area.........April 20, 2018.
Gold stars beginning to bloom along Box Canyon Road as it travels through both BLM lands as well as the Simcoe Mountains Unit of the Klickitat Wildlife Area......May 1, 2022.
Paul Slichter