General: Perennial herb from a fibrous-rooted, woody stem-base or rhizome; stems erect, solitary or few, branched above, glabrous to sparsely short-hairy above, 0.2-1.5 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves triangular to heart-shaped, squared-off at the base; strongly toothed, stalked, 2.5-10 cm long including the stalks, 0.4-4.5 cm wide, hairless except for short hairs on the veins beneath, sometimes deciduous by flowering time; stem leaves similar, larger, 2.5-25 cm long, 0.4-8.5 cm wide, gradually reduced upwards, becoming unstalked.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, few to more often numerous on sparsely hairy stalks in a short, flat-topped inflorescence; involucres 7-12 mm tall; involucral bracts lanceolate, conspicuously black-tipped, sometimes also sparsely hairy or rarely with inconspicuous unstalked glands at the tips; bracteoles conspicuous, black-tipped, hairy; ray fowers yellow, mostly 7-14 mm long; disk flowers yellow.
Fruits: Achenes oblong, faintly ribbed, glabrous; pappus of white hairlike bristles.
Moist to mesic meadows, streambanks, avalanche tracks and forest openings from the lowland to lower alpine zones; common throughout BC; N to S AK, S YT and SW NT, E to SK and S to NM 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)
A shade-tolerant to very shade-intolerant, montane to alpine, Western North American forb distributed equally in the Pacific and Cordilleran regions. Occurs on very moist to wet, nitrogen-rich soils within alpine tundra, boreal. cool temperate, and cool mesothermal climates; its occurrence increases with precipitation. Scattered to plentiful in meadowlike communities and the herbaceous understory of open-canopy forests on water-receiving and water-collecting sites. A nitrophytic species characteristic of Moder and Mull humus forms.
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