General: Perennial herb from a woody root and often an unbranched, short stem-base; stems erect, usually solitary, branched above, loosely bristly-hairy at least at the base, becoming glabrous upwards, exuding a milky juice when broken, 0.3-1.2 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves oblanceolate, narrowed to a stalk, 4-25 cm long, 1.2-4.5 cm wide, sparsely or moderately bristly-hairy or the upper nearly glabrous, entire or wavy-toothed, persistent and often tufted; stem leaves lacking, or if present few, unstalked and reduced.
Flowers: Heads with strap-shaped flowers, several or many on slender stalks in a round- to flat-topped inflorescence; involucres 6-11 mm tall; involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, scarcely graduated, greenish or blackish, glabrous or often sparsely glandular with pale or black hairs, sometimes with a few bristly hairs; ray flowers white.
Fruits: Achenes narrowed at the base, several-ribbed, 2.5-3 mm long; pappus of many white to brownish bristles.
Mesic to dry roadsides, fields, grasslands, shrublands and forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to SK and S to 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)
