Montana Field Guide

Stems ascending, 3–20 cm. Herbage scabrous to strigose. Leaves cauline, stiff, short-petiolate; blades oblanceolate, serrate to entire, 1–5 cm long, sessile above, the lowest deciduous. Inflorescence corymbiform with 1 to few heads; peduncles densely villous. Involucre campanulate, 6–9 mm high; phyllaries lanceolate, ciliate to puberulent; the inner purplish. Rays 12 to 50; ligules 7–12 mm long. Disk flowers 25 to 125; corolla 5–7 mm long. Achenes fusiform, 2–4 mm long, sparsely strigose (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Sparsely vegetated, stony, usually calcareous soil of alpine fellfields, montane streambanks (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 ternarius, and Bombus terricola (Colla and Dumesh 2010).