As a name, “Threadleaf Ragwort”may sound like a character out of Tolkien, but it’s actually the common name of a rather uncommon plant.
With grayish, Artemesia-esque leaves and weirdly misshapen, yellow flowers, sun-loving Senecio flaccidus is a local nerd-plant in the Asteraceae family. It can be spotted growing in the sandy washes of wide canyon bottoms in the Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains and will be happiest in similarly thin, fast-draining soil with a layer of gravel mulch.