General:
General: Perennial herb, from an ascending, fibrous-rooted rhizome or stem-base; stems leafy, erect or sometimes ascending, simple or branched only in the inflorescence, sparsely to densely hairy or sometimes glandular at least in the upper portion, 10-50 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves lance-shaped to narrowly elliptic, hairy and often glandular, stalked, entire to toothed; stem leaves opposite, 2-4 pairs (rarely 1 or 5), reduced and becoming unstalked and entire upwards.

Flowers:
Heads with ray and disk flowers, solitary to 5 (rarely 7), the bases densely white-hairy; involucres 10-18 mm tall; involucral bracts lance-shaped, hairy, and usually glandular; ray flowers yellow, 10-16, toothed at the apex; disk flowers yellow.

Fruits:
Achenes 4-8 mm long, uniformly densely hairy and often glandular; pappus white, finely-barbed.

Notes:
Four subspecies occur in BC.

1. Plants and involucres conspicuously white, woolly long-hairy; stems 5-20 cm tall, common in the alpine zone throughout BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains.................... ssp. tomentosa (Macoun) G. W. Dougl. & G. Ruyle-Dougl.

1. Plants and involucres never conspicuously white, woolly long-hairy; stems 10-50 cm tall, frequent in N and E BC.

2. Leaves regularly toothed (at least the basal ones), lower leaves long-stalked; stems 20-45 cm tall, frequent in the montane zone of the Rocky Mountains of NE and SE BC.................. ssp. lonchophylla (Greene) G.W. Dougl.& G. Ruyle-Dougl.

2. Leaves entire or sometimes irregularly toothed, lower leaves short-stalked; stems 10-45 cm tall, plants of the montane and lower subalpine zones of N BC.

3. Heads solitary (rarely 3); stem leaves 2-3 pairs; stems 10-25 (rarely 30) cm tall..................... ssp. Angustifolia

3. Heads 3-5 (rarely 1 or 7), stem leaves 4-5 pairs (rarely 3 pairs); stems 15-45 cm tall.................... ssp. attenuata (Greene) G.W. Dougl. & G. Ruyle-Dougl.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Arnica arnoglossa Greene
Arnica lonchophylla var. arnoglossa (Greene) B. Boivin