Montana Field Guide

Perennial with a simple or short-branched caudex and a stout taproot. Flowering stems ascending, glabrous to weakly tomentose, 3–15 cm, clothed in old leaf bases below. Leaves basal, long-petiolate; the blade 1–4 cm long, elliptic, white- to brown-tomentose below, nearly glabrous above. Inflorescence loosely capitate, bracts 2, leaf-like; involucres appearing clustered, sparsely glandular and hairy, 4–5 mm long with 4 to 5 erect lobes. Flowers 3–6 mm long, campanulate with a stipe-like base <1 mm long, white to rose; tepals glandular-villous, similar in shape; stamens exserted. Achenes 4–5 mm long (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Subalpine and alpine rocky ridges and talus slopes.

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 flavifrons, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus ternarius, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus insularis, and Bombus flavidus (Thorp et al. 1983, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).