Montana Field Guide

Shrubs. Stems spreading to erect, 10–50 cm, glabrous to puberulent; twigs brittle, white; bark gray. Leaves alternate, entire, linear, usually somewhat twisted, glabrous to puberulent, resinous, 1–4 cm long with 3 to 5 veins. Inflorescence tight-corymbiform with several heads on short peduncles. Heads discoid; involucres obconic, 4–9 mm high; phyllaries imbricate in 3 to 5 series, narrowly lanceolate, white to greenish; receptacle convex, glabrous. Disk flowers 4 to 8, perfect, yellow; corolla 4–7 mm long, tube shorter than throat; style branches linear. Pappus barbellate, capillary bristles. Achenes obconic, 2–4 mm long, 5-angled, pubescent (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Montana also has subspecies lanceolatus (Nutt.) H.M.Hall & Clem.

Sagebrush steppe, grasslands; valleys, montane (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus bifarius, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus huntii, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, Bombus flavidus, and Bombus kirbiellus (Thorp et al. 1983, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).