General:
Perennial herb from a long rhizome; stems erect, solitary, occasionally branched below the middle, sparsely to densely long-hairy, becoming glandular above, 20-100 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves often deciduous by flowering time; stem leaves 5-10 pairs, rarely only 4 pairs, opposite, 3-30 cm long, 0.3-8 cm wide, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 3-5 veined, sparsely to densely long-hairy to silvery-hairy, stalked below, not stalked above, entire to toothed, reduced upward.

Flowers:
Heads with ray and disk flowers, 5-15, rarely as few as 1, usually erect, the bases sparsely to densely long-hairy with white hairs, often glandular; involucres 8-15 mm tall; involucral bracts lanceolate, rounded to abruptly pointed, sparsely to densely long-hairy with a conspicuous tuft of whitish hairs at the apex; ray flowers yellow, usually 10-16, apical teeth conspicuous; disk flowers yellow.

Fruits:
Achenes 3.8-6 mm long, cylindric, short-hairy and glandular to subglabrate; pappus tawny or whitish, finely-barbed or somewhat feathery.

Notes:
Three fairly well-marked taxa may be recognized in BC.

1. Pappus somewhat feathery, tawny; involucres densely long-hairy with some unstalked glands, the basal hairs with prominent crosswalls; leaves usually toothed and unstalked or the lowermost stalked..................... ssp. chamissonis

1. Pappus finely-barbed, whitish to straw-colored; involucres densely long-hairy but without unstalked glands, the basal hairs with less prominent crosswalls; leaves usually toothed and long-stalked, at least below.

2. Leaves densely silvery-hairy..................... ssp. incana (A. Gray) Maguire

2. Leaves less densely hairy, never silvery....................... ssp. foliosa (Nutt.) Maguire

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia