Lomer (2011) provides the following description of var. grandiflorum in his article on the rare plants of the Fraser Valley: "This is one of the relatively few native BC plants that has found a place in the horticultural trade. Var. grandiflorum is a larger variety with longer ray flowers and more numerous heads, in well-grown plants at least. It is difficult to tell from the common var. montanum which is a variety that grows on river shores along the Thompson and Fraser Rivers as well as several other places in southeast BC. Var. montanum also can be found as a native plant in riverbars of the upper Fraser Valley from Agassiz to Hope and rarely downriver as well, usually in sand dredgings. Var. grandiflorum can be told by its larger flower heads and rays, taller stature and more robust habit.

Var. grandiflorum can be found scattered along a 20 km stretch on both sides of the Pitt River from Douglas Island to Pitt Lake (UBC: Bradfield 92). It was discovered on Westham Island in 2008 and can be expected anywhere along the Fraser River on wet vegetated shores, east to about Hope. There are old collections from ditches in Langley; these sites may or may not have been destroyed. There is a large population in back of the Ruby Creek Rest Stop, Hwy 7, west of Hope." [Reprinted from Botanical Electronic News #435, with permission]