Pentachaeta
(from pente, five, and chaite, a bristle; alluding to the five bristles at the base of the pappus). ORD. Compositae. A small genus (four species) of greenhouse or hardy, small, slender, annual herbs, natives of California and Mexico. Flower-heads yellow, mediocre or rather small, solitary at the tips of the branches, radiate; ray-florets uniseriate; involucre hemispherical or broadly campanulate; receptacle flat or slightly convex, naked; achenes somewhat silky-villous. Leaves alternate, linear, entire, or rarely almost opposite and denticulate. P. aurea, the only species yet introduced, is readily grown from seeds, sown in sandy loam, in warm, sunny spots, in spring.
P. aurea (golden). fl.-heads golden-yellow, 1in. in diameter; ray-florets twenty to fifty. l. numerous, sessile, filiform-linear. h. 2in. to 3in. California, 1884. A pretty, dwarf, umbellately branched, hardy herb. (R. G. 1153.)