Leaves without pubescence and not fascicled, ~1.25-2.5 cm long, glabrous yellowish olive-green or grey-green, resinous and stiff. Sessile (clasping the stem without a petiole or leaf stem) or nearly so (if a petiole is present, it's generally <1 mm long and the base of the leaf tapers into it imperceptibly). Young leaves usually have entire (smooth) margins; older leaves often develop as many as 6 small teeth on each side. The tip is obtuse (rounded), and the margins are sometimes wavy or crisped. There are 3 principal veins, palmately branching from near the base of the leaf, with only the midrib particularly noticeable. The species is sexually dioecious, with each gender's flowers segregated on different plants. Inflorescences feature composite flowerheads in a leafy panicle (branched spike) hemispheric to bell-shaped, with few to many flowerheads, often quite crowded, white to yellowish, with male plants having rounder, shorter flowerheads and females having longer, thinner flowerheads that eventually develop a pappus (fringe of bristles atop the fruit, ~0.6-1 cm long) that looks like white paintbrushes. Fruit is a glabrous (smooth-surfaced), ribbed achene (dry, 1-seeded fruit) ~1-2 mm long. Blooms from August to December. Plant forms a much-branched, densely leafy shrub 1-4 m tall with both erect and sprawling growth habits. Shade-intolerant, it is often a secondary succession pioneer species in both California sage scrub and chaparral. It can invade California grasslands and enable type-conversion to CSS. It favors the coastal strand, in California sage scrub, and oak woodland, and it is tolerant of serpentine soils. It is found mostly below 750 m but may get up to 1500 m in elevation in favorable situations, in the Peninsular Ranges, the western Transverse Ranges, the Channel Islands, the Coast Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada foothills and, outside, California, may be found in Oregon and Baja.
Baccharis pilularis (Asteraceae aka Compositae): coyote brush or chaparral broom or bush baccharis or false willow or groundsel-tree
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.