Montana Field Guide

Fibrous-rooted from a simple or branched caudex or simple rhizome. Stems erect to ascending, sometimes branched above, 3–40 cm. Herbage tomentose, sometimes becoming glabrate on upper leaf surfaces. Leaves basal and cauline; basal blades linear-oblanceolate to ovate, entire to dentate, 1–8 cm long; cauline blades lanceolate, often with lobes or teeth, becoming sessile. Inflorescence corymbiform of 2 to 20 heads. Heads radiate; involucres 4–12 mm high; phyllaries 13 to 21, sparsely tomentose, sometimes purplish. Rays 8 to 13; ligules 3–12 mm long. Disk corollas 4–7 mm long. Achenes 2–4 mm long, glabrous (Lesica 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Often stony soil of grasslands, sagebrush steppe, meadows, open forest, fellfields, talus, roadsides at all elevations; plains, valleys to alpine (Lesica 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).