General: Perennial herb, mat-forming with numerous leafy stolons 1-7 cm long; stems erect, several, branched above, densely woolly-hairy, sometimes glandular above, the glands with reddish crosswalls; 5-40 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves spoon-shaped, oblanceolate to broadly lanceolate, grey to white woolly-hairy above and below, sometimes green above, 6-40 mm long, 2-10 mm wide, abruptly sharp-pointed, with a sharp, slender tip; stem leaves, 5-35 mm long, linear to lanceolate, abruptly sharp-pointed.
Flowers: Heads several to many in a compact, rounded cluster; involucres usually of 1 type, these female, 4-10 mm tall, hairy at the base; involucral bracts lanceolate, the upper papery portion combinations of white, pink, rose, green, pale yellow or light brown; female flowers 2.5-4.5 mm long.
Fruits: Achenes 0.6-1.8 mm long, glabrous or warty; pappus white with hairlike bristles, 3.5-6.5 mm long.
Mesic to dry slopes, river terraces and open forests from the lowland to the alpine zones; common throughout BC, except lacking on N Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands; N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ and S to AZ, 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)
