Erigeron purpuratus has recently been split, with Erigeron denali found in the northwest part of the province and Erigeron pallens in the southeast. True Erigeron purpuratus is now restricted to more northerly areas (Alaska, Yukon). Note Author: Jamie Fenneman, University of British Columbia Herbarium

General:
Perennial herb from a diffuse, slenderly-branching stem-base; stems ascending, usually solitary, simple, finely glandular and more or less long-hairy, 1-10 cm tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves oblanceolate to spoon-shaped, sparsely to moderately long-hairy, often more or less glabrous with maturity, sometimes obscurely glandular, 0.5-3 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, some of them 3-lobed at the tips, the lobing more common in S BC; stem leaves similar, few or lacking, greatly reduced.

Flowers:
Heads with ray and disk flowers, disks 6-15 mm wide; involucres 5-10 mm tall; involucral bracts glandular long-hairy, the multicellular hairs often with purplish crosswalls, subequal, with long-pointed tips, green, yellowish or purplish towards the tips; ray flowers 50-90, white, purplish or pinkish, 4-5 mm long, 0.5-0.9 mm wide; disk flowers 3.5-5 mm long.

Fruits:
Achenes 2-nerved, sparsely to moderately short-hairy; pappus simple or rarely double, the inner pappus of 25-40, white or sometimes reddish-purple tinted bristles, these equal to or surpassing the disk flowers by 1 mm, the outer pappus lacking or of inconspicuous scales.

Notes:
Douglas (1989, 1995) placed Erigeron pallens in synonymy under E. purpuratus Greene after examining large amounts of material from N BC and the YT. More recently, material from extreme N AK has been recognized as different from the more southern E. pallens and should be recognized as E. purpuratus (D.F. Murray, pers. comm.).

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:
Erigeron purpuratus subsp. pallens (Cronquist) G.W. Douglas, nom. nud.