General: Perennial herb from a fibrous-rooted, simple or slightly branched woody stem-base; stems erect, solitary or few, branched above, glabrous, 0.1-1 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves lanceolate to elliptic to broadly egg-shaped, stalked, 1.5-12 cm long including the stalk, 0.5-5 cm wide, toothed, glabrous or lightly woolly-hairy when young; stem leaves lanceolate, sharply incised, pinnately cut and irregularly lobed, glabrous, reduced upwards, becoming unstalked.
Flowers: Heads discoid, few to numerous in a round-topped inflorescence; involucres 7-11 mm tall; involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, purplish-tipped or purplish throughout, glabrous or sparsely woolly-hairy; bracteoles few, inconspicuous; discoid or rarely short and yellow; disk flowers yellow.
Fruits: Achenes oblong, faintly ribbed, glabrous; pappus of white hairlike bristles.
Moist forests, bogs, fens and streambanks in the steppe and montane zones; common throughout BC in and E of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to AK, YT and NT, E to PQ and NS, and S to WY and CA.
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)
