E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Biennial or perennial herb from a taproot; stems ascending to erect, sparsely to densely woolly, sometimes glandular in the inflorescence, 10-60 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves 1-3 pinnately cut, 2-12 cm long, stalked, ultimate segments contorted and curled; stem leaves reduced and becoming unstalked upwards.

Flowers:
Heads discoid, usually several in a flat-topped inflorescence, or the lateral branches overtopping the central axis; involucres 7-17 mm tall; involucral bracts narrowly oblanceolate, glandular or glandular-hairy; disk flowers 50-70, white, sometimes pinkish.

Fruits:
Achenes 6-8 mm long, densely stiff-hairy; pappus of 10-16 unequal scales.

Notes:
A second Chaenactis (C. douglasii var. alpina Gray [C. alpina]) has previously been recognized as occurring in BC (Douglas et al. 1989). During 1995 the site of the only collection of the this taxon in BC was revisited and all plants in the population were identified as C. douglasii var. douglasii. The original collection was of an atypical plant, without stem leaves.