General: Perennial herb from a branched woody base; stems erect, few, branched above, densely woolly-hairy, 15-70 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves linear-oblanceolate, gradually stalked, 3-10 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, erect, densely woolly-hairy, often several-nerved; stem leaves similar, becoming unstalked, linear and reduced upwards.
Flowers: Heads discoid, several to numerous in a compact inflorescence; involucres of 2 types, the female ones 4-5 mm tall, involucral bracts oblanceolate to egg-shaped, the papery portion pale greenish-brown below, the upper portion whitish, glabrous to the base, the male bracts similar to the female; female flowers 2.5-4 mm tall, the male flowers 2-3.5 mm tall.
Fruits: Achenes elliptic, 1-2 mm long, warty; pappus white with hairlike bristles, 2.5-4 mm tall; male pappus hairs strongly club-shaped and toothed at the the tips.
Dry gravelly slopes, shrublands and forest openings in the steppe and lower montane zones; infrequent in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to AB and S to MO, WY, CO, UT and CA.
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, 2013)
