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General:
Perennial herb from a taproot and few- to many-branched woody stem-base; stems sometimes inconspicuous or lacking, covered with old persistent leaf bases, 2-5 cm tall when developed.
Leaves:
Basal leaves linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 1-4.5 cm long, 0.5-3.5 cm wide, stiff-hairy; stem leaves lacking.
Flowers:
Heads with ray and disk flowers, unstalked or short-stalked amongst the leaves; involucres 9-15 mm tall, about 1.5 cm wide; involucral bracts linear, with long-pointed tips, usually fringed with hairs and terminated by a tuft of tangled hairs; ray flowers white to pinkish, 15-30, 8.5-14 mm long; disk flowers yellow, sometimes pinkish-tipped, 4-6.5 mm long.
Fruits:
Achenes oblanceolate, compressed, 2-nerved, long-hairy, sometimes papillose; pappus of slender, finely-barbed bristles, those of the rays sometimes much shorter than the disk ones.
Notes:
It has now been over 18 years since BC Townsendia collections were examined for the BC Asteraceae treatment (Douglas 1995). In recent years, much more material has been collected from SE BC as well as a collection from NE BC. It is now apparent that most of our plants fit T. hookeri quite well. Some collections, however, do approach the closely related T. exscapa. These plants have either more narrow involucre bracts or lack the terminal tufts of hairs on the bracts and the relatively wide (about 1.5 cm wide) involucres typical of T. exscapa.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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