General: Perennial, slightly to strongly aromatic herb from a stout rhizome; stems erect, several, 0.5-1.5 m tall.
Leaves: Lower leaves usually soon deciduous, main stem leaves linear or sometimes lanceolate, occasionally 3-parted, entire, glabrous or sometimes long-hairy; mostly 3-8 cm long, 2-10 mm wide.
Flowers: Heads disciform, numerous in an open, branched inflorescence; involucres hemispheric, 2-3 mm tall; involucral bracts oblanceolate to elliptic with broad, translucent or thin, dry, papery margins, glabrous; receptacles glabrous; female flowers 6-30; disk flowers 10-30.
Dry roadsides, meadows and open forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains and S of 57degreeN; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, E to MB and S to MO, KS, TX, NM, AZ, CA and MX, Eurasia.
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)
