General: Medium to tall shrub, 1-2 (3) m tall; stems erect, freely and rigidly branched, twigs woolly-hairy, especially when young.
Leaves: Alternate, deciduous, in small bundles on short lateral spur-shoots, wedge-shaped, mostly 1-2 cm long, 3-toothed at the tip, silvery-greenish and hairy on the upper surface, grey-woolly beneath, the margins rolled under.
Flowers: Inflorescence of single, short-stalked flowers at ends of short, lateral, leafy spur-shoots; corollas yellow to cream, wheel-shaped, the petals 5, egg- to spoon-shaped, 5-9 mm long, early-deciduous; calyces bell-shaped, woolly- or cobwebby-hairy and stalked-glandular, 5-lobed, the lobes oblong-egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens about 25.
Fruits: Large achenes, about 15 mm long including the persistent style, ellipsoid-spindle-shaped, somewhat leathery, velvety-hairy and glandular; seeds 1, black, pear-shaped, 6-8 mm long.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2008)
Dry open slopes, grasslands and sagebrush shrublands in the steppe and adjoining lower montane zones; common in extreme S BC, east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains and south of about 51degreeN; S to MT, WY, CO, NM and CA.
