Petasites frigidus var. vitifolius (L.) Fr.
Asteraceae (Aster family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

Photograph

© Deborah Freeman     (Photo ID #29368)


Map

E-Flora BC Static Map

Distribution of Petasites frigidus var. vitifolius
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Species Information

General:
Perennial herb from a creeping root; stems erect, branched above, numerous, more or less white woolly-hairy, with parallel-veined bracts 2.5-6 cm long, reduced upwards, 5-50 cm tall, flowering stems appear before the leaves.
Leaves:
Basal leaves arising directly from the creeping root, triangular to heart-shaped on long stalks, shallowly to palmately lobed or toothed, white-woolly to nearly glabrous beneath, green and somewhat hairy above, 4-50 cm long; stem leaves alternate, reduced, represented by parallel-veined bracts 1-6 cm long, more or less white woolly-hairy.
Flowers:
Heads disciform or with ray and disk flowers, several to many in a round- to flat-topped inflorescence, stalks glandular and white-woolly; involucres 6-15 mm tall; involucral bracts oblanceolate to lanceolate, pointed, hairy basally with multicellular hairs, the crosswalls often purple, margins translucent, tips fine-hairy; ray flowers few, whitish or pinkish; disk flowers whitish.
Fruits:
Achenes 5-10-ribbed, glabrous, rarely sparsely long-hairy, 3-4.5 mm; pappus of numerous white, hairlike bristles.
Notes:
Three varieties occur in BC.

1. Leaves merely coarsely toothed or shallowly and obscurely lobed; plants of the subalpine and alpine zones........................ var. frigidus

1. Leaves conspicuously lobed; plants of the lowland to alpine zones.

2. Leaves palmately lobed and usually deeply cleft more than 1/2 way to the leaf base, usually broader than long; plants of the lowland and montane zones........................... var. palmatus (Ait.) Cronq.

2. Leaves lobed, sometimes palmately, but usually not cleft more than 1/2 way to the leaf base, usually longer than broad; plants of the subalpine and alpine zones...................... var. nivalis (Greene) Cronq.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat and Range

Wet to moist ditches, streambanks, meadows and forests in the lowland to alpine zones; var. palmatus is common throughout all BC except the Queen Charlotte Islands and adjacent coast, var. nivalis is common throughout BC, and var. frigidus is frequent in extreme N BC and rare southward; var. palmatus - E to NF and S to MA, MI and CA; var. nivalis - E to PQ and N MN and S to N OR, and var. frigidus - circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT, Eurasia.

SourceThe Illustrated Flora of British Columbia