General: Perennial herb from extensive rhizomes; stems erect, branched above, solitary, glabrous or glaucous, 0.2-1.2 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves lacking; stem leaves alternate, linear to lanceolate or oblong, the lower ones 5-14 cm long, 6-35 mm wide, entire or more or less pinnately cut, rarely sharply toothed, stalked, the upper ones reduced, becoming entire, unstalked to somewhat clasping.
Flowers: Heads with strap-shaped flowers, several to numerous in an elongate to rounded inflorescence; involucres 15-20 mm tall; involucral bracts narrowly egg-shaped, graduated, the outer shorter, often purplish; ray flowers blue or sometimes violet to blue, 18-50.
Fruits: Achenes oblong-lanceolate, short-beaked, the beak equaling or less than 1/2 the length of the body, compressed, several-nerved on each face, glabrous, 6-7 mm long including the prominent beak, pale brown; pappus white.
Moist to mesic meadows and shrublands in the steppe and montane zones; frequent throughout all but NW and SW BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to ON, MN and MO and S to OR 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)
