Coastal burnweed

Erechtites minima (accepted name; also placed in Senecio as Senecio minimus), commonly called coastal burnweed or toothed fireweed, is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb in the Asteraceae family reaching up to 2 m in height. The plant produces a slender, ribbed, often reddish, branching stem clothed with alternate, lanceolate, irregularly toothed but not pinnately lobed leaves that are sessile or short-petiolate and somewhat glaucous. From spring through autumn—and year-round in mild climates with a summer peak—it bears terminal cymose panicles of numerous narrow cylindrical discoid flower heads with yellow to purple-tipped disc florets, ray florets absent, that produce tufted wind-dispersed achenes; a single robust plant can release approximately 200 heads. Native to Australia and New Zealand, the species has naturalized in coastal forest margins, disturbed ground, and occasionally subalpine habitats in western North America (Washington, Oregon, California), Britain, and Ireland. It is host to several specialist insects including the magpie moth.