Fremontodendron californicum

The plant is a flowering evergreen hardwood shrub or small multi-trunked tree.

The leaves are olive to gray−green, fuzzy and flannel-like, palmately to pinnately lobed. The hairs covering the leaves are easily brushed off in human contact, and can be a skin and eye irritant. The large flowers a rich yellow, sometimes with orange, coppery, or reddish margins.

It typically grows in sandy washes near seasonal creeks, or in chalky well-drained mountain hillsides that get plenty of rainfall. By summer, the evergreen plants are dormant, in which state summer irrigation swiftly kills them. Is drought tolerant. Needs good drainage.

Similar plants:

• Fremontodendron sp. (Flannelbush)