Tidy-Tips. Yellow Daisy
Layia Platyglossa, Gray. Composite Family
Stems.—A foot or so high; loosely branching. Leaves.—Alternate; sessile; the lower linear and pinnatifid, the upper entire. Flower-heads.—Solitary; terminal; of disk- and ray-flowers. Disk-flowers.—Yellow, with black stamens. Rays.—Bright yellow, tipped with white; six lines long; four lines wide; three-lobed. Hab.—Throughout Western California; in low ground.
Among the most charming of our flowers are the beautiful tidy-tips. In midspring, countless millions of them lift themselves above the sheets of golden Bæria on our flower-tapestried plains. The fresh winds come sweetly laden with their delicate fragrance. Were they not scattered everywhere in such lavish profusion, we would doubtless cherish them in our gardens.
FALSE TIDY-TIPS—Leptosyne Douglasii.
TIDY-TIPS—Layia Platyglossa.
Growing among these blossoms is often found another flower, somewhat similar to them. This is Leptosyne Douglasii, DC., the false tidy-tip. It has not the clean, natty appearance of Layia platyglossa; for the gradual blending of the light tips into the darker yellow below gives it an indefinite, unattractive look. There is a difference in the involucre, which has two series of bracts, and there are no touches of black among the disk-flowers.