General: Annual herb from a taproot: stems erect to ascending or decumbent, simple, solitary to several, leafless, exuding milky juice when broken, 4-35 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves linear to oblanceolate or spoon-shaped, entire or coarsely pinnately cut with slender or broad tapering lobes or teeth, glabrous, 3-25 cm long; stem leaves lacking.
Flowers: Heads with strap-shaped flowers, solitary at end of stems, nodding until mature; involucres 6-15 mm tall; involucral bracts broadly lanceolate, the inner ones keeled, often reddish on the outer surface, long black-hairy within, the outer ones short and bractlike; ray flowers yellow or yellow-orange.
Fruits: Achenes tapered abruptly at the base, brown or bronze, sometimes darkly spotted, 2.5-6 mm long; pappus of 5 glabrous or short-hairy, lanceolate scales, each terminating in a long, hairlike bristle arising from the pointed scale.
There are three species of Microseris in B.C. that could be confused with Microseris bigelovii: M. borealis, M. nutans, and M. lindleyi. M. borealis and M. nutans are perennials which have more conspicuous ray flowers that well exceed the involucre. M. lindleyi and M. bigelovii are annuals which have inconspicuous ray flowers that equal or barely exceed the involucre. Only M. lindleyi has a similar distribution to M. bigelovii. M. bigelovii has lanceolate pappus scales, each terminating in a long, hair-like bristle arising from a pointed scale, and has leafless, unbranched stems. M. lindleyi has linear pappus scales, each terminating in a short hair-like bristle arising from a distinctly-notched scale, and has stems that are leafy below and branched at or near the base (Douglas et al. 1998b; COSEWIC 2006b).
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