Montana Field Guide

Perennial from a branched caudex or short rhizomes. Stems erect, 20–80 cm. Herbage glabrous. Leaves cauline, rarely basal, petiolate below, auriculate-clasping above; blades lanceolate to ovate, entire to serrate, 2–15 cm long. Inflorescence leafy-paniculate, open with many heads; peduncles often glaucous, glabrous to puberulent in lines, the bracts clasping. Involucre campanulate, 5–9 mm high; phyllaries linear-lanceolate, imbricate, glabrous, green above with white bases and hyaline margins. Rays 15 to 30, blue; ligules 7–12 mm long. Disk flowers 20 to 30, yellow, turning purplish; corollas 5–7 mm long. Achenes oblong, 2–4 mm long, glabrous (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Our plants are variety geyeri (A.Gray) G.L. Nesom.

Moist grasslands, meadows, forest openings, especially along streams, roads or other disturbed areas; plains, 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 vagans, Bombus bifarius, Bombus borealis, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus huntii, Bombus mixtus, Bombus rufocinctus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus ternarius, Bombus terricola, Bombus sitkensis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus griseocollis, Bombus impatiens, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, Bombus bohemicus, and Bombus kirbiellus (Plath 1934, Heinrich 1976, Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Colla et al. 2011, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014, Tripoldi and Szalanski 2015).