General:
Low prostrate shrub from a long woody stem-base; stems trailing, freely branching and rooting, mat-forming, often forming large colonies.

Leaves:
Alternate, evergreen, the leaf blades elliptic to oblong-egg-shaped, 1-4 cm long, broadest above the middle, blunt to rounded at the tip, wedge-shaped at the stalked base, the margins coarsely round-toothed and often rolled under; wrinkled, dark green and smooth above, densely white woolly-hairy below; dead leaves withering but the remains persisting.

Flowers:
Usually solitary, nodding on leafless, woolly-hairy, 5- to 25-cm tall stalks; corollas yellow, never fully expanding, the petals 8 to 10, elliptic to egg-shaped, ascending, 8-12 mm long; calyces usually densely covered with black, gland-tipped hairs, sometimes long-silky-hairy, the 8 to 10 lobes broadly egg-shaped, 4-8 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens numerous, the filaments hairy toward the base.

Fruits:
Numerous achenes, each tipped by the persistent, golden-yellow, silky-feathery style, which twists around others when immature and in damp weather; the whole later opens to a fluffy mass.

Notes:
Three varieties occur in BC:

1. Calyces densely silky-hairy......................... var. eglandulosa Pors.

1. Calyces densely stalked-glandular.

2. Leaves smooth and dark green above...................... var. drummondii

2. Leaves finely woolly-hairy and white above........................ var. tomentosa (Farr) Williams

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