| Tetradymia comosa | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Tribe: | Senecioneae |
| Genus: | Tetradymia |
| Species: | T. comosa |
| Binomial name | |
| Tetradymia comosa A.Gray |
|
Tetradymia comosa is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name hairy horsebrush. It is native to the mountains of southern California and Baja California, where it grows in local mountain habitat such as chaparral and coastal sage scrub. It is a whitish woolly shrub growing 30 centimeters to over a meter tall. The leaves are lance-shaped and up to 6 centimeters long, becoming rigid as they age, sometimes with their tips hardening to spines. The inflorescence bears three to six flower heads which are each enveloped in five or six thick phyllaries coated in white woolly hairs. Each head contains five to nine yellow or brownish flowers each around a centimeter long. The fruit is a small, hairy achene.