General: Perennial herb from a woody base and a taproot; stems ascending, several, branched, 10-50 cm tall, hairy or glandular, or both.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; lowermost stem leaves soon deciduous, middle and upper stem leaves oblong to spoon-shaped, appressed- or spreading-hairy, sometimes glandular, entire, 1-5 cm long, 0.2-1 cm wide.
Fruits: Achenes oblong egg-shaped, long soft-hairy; pappus double, the inner of hairlike bristles, the outer of evident scales.
Notes: Two varieties occur in BC:
1. Leaves and involucres with spreading hairs, sometimes these partly replaced by glands.................. var. hispida (Hook.) Harms
1. Leaves with appressed or nearly appressed hairs, seldom at all glandular; hairs of the involucres appressed to spreading..................... var. villosa
Dry grasslands, shrublands and open forests in the steppe and lower montane zones; common in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; E to MB, and S to ND, NE, OK, TX, 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)