Alarconia helenioides de Candolle in A. P. de Candolle and A. L. P. P. de Candolle, Prodr. 5: 537. 1836

Plants (15–)25–40(–60) cm. Basal leaves: blades (whitish to grayish) oblong-ovate to lance-elliptic, 18–38 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes serrulate or dentate (often undulate), faces densely tomentose to tomentulose (usually gland-dotted as well), glabrescent; cauline leaves (3–6) similar, smaller. Heads usually borne singly (–2+). Involucres hemispheric or broader, 35–60+ mm diam. Phyllaries 16–24, unequal, herbaceous, margins not ciliolate, faces tomentose; outer (30–)40–80+ mm (foliaceous, much surpassing the discs). Ray florets 13–21; laminae 20–35(–50) mm. Cypselae 12–15 mm, distally strigillose. 2n = 38.

Flowering (Feb–)Mar–May. Grassy slopes, openings in woodlands; 10 –1600(–2000) m; Calif.

Wyethia helenioides grows in the Sierra Nevada foothills and west of the Central Valley, avoiding the fog belt.