Hemizonia congesta ssp. luzulifolia, White Hayfield Tarweed

White Hayfield Tarweed is a common native annual herb that makes a great filler for the garden bed. It becomes about a 2 ft ball with abundant delicate white flowers, providing shape and structure that other annuals do not. Some have pink stripes on the underside of the petals. Will reseed freely so you’ll have lots more in subsequent years. In the wild, it tends to grow in open grasslands. The plant is slightly aromatic.

It is frequented by insects for pollen and nectar, e.g. hover flies, sweat bees, small heliothodes moth, and the geometrid moth. Its seeds provide food for small mammals, e.g. mice, and numerous birds such as mourning doves, California quail, California towhee, and dark-eyed junco. Seeds of tarweeds (Hemizonia and Madia species), which are abundant, aromatic, and rich in oil, were a prized component of pinole for many California native peoples.