#turkey mullein

[jenfoundabug]

The little orange hat 🥹🥰

Grey hairstreak (Strymon melinus) on native turkey mullein (Croton setiger), Northern California, US These adorably small butterflies wiggle their back wings while at rest. It is thought that this movement combined with the markings and "antennae" on their back wings are meant to mimic an insect's head. This coaxes jumping spiders, a major predator of smaller pollinators, to attack the wrong side of the butterfly, allowing it to flee.

[californianativeplants-blog]

Croton setigerus aka doveweed or turkey mullein. 

more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_setigerus

[here2012]

turkey mullein, yerba del pescado, fish locoweed

There had seemed to be no mourning doves here and I missed them, but since June I’ll sometimes see a group of them fly up when I drive past certain flat silver plants that grow along the roadsides and nowhere else. Dove weed. It's a plant that is unpleasant to touch, but a fine perfume rises when it's crushed by a tire.

Croton setigerus, or Eremocarpus setigerus, of the Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family.

Turkey mullein is a very low-growing plant that is commonly found in summer through fall on the sides of fire roads and other such places that are open to full sun. Its gray-green, roundish, thick leaves are 1/2 to 2 inches long, spade-shaped with 3 veins visible and covered in bristly hairs. The pale yellowish flowers largely blend in with the foliage and are in bloom from May to November. 

Its dark, round seeds attract doves, quail and other birds.

Crushed plants were used by the natives to stupefy fish.

Thomas Belzer Roadside plants of Southern California