California chicory

It looks like a weedy daisy, bearing heads of elegant white-petaled flowers. The ligules of the flowers are often striped with lavender or pink on the undersides, a feature most noticeable when the heads are closed. Each fruit has a pappus of stiff white or light brown hairs.

It is among the first plants to sprout up in areas recently cleared by fire. Indeed, the seeds germinate more readily in the presence of burned wood.