1.
Balsamorhiza sagittata
(Pursh) Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 350. 1840.
Buphthalmum sagittatum
Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 564. 1813;
Balsamorhiza helianthoides
(Nuttall) Nuttall;
Espeletia helianthoides
Nuttall;
E. sagittata
(Pursh) Nuttall
Plants
(15—)20—40(—65) cm.
Basal leaves:
blades ± silvery to white or gray-green, rounded-deltate or deltate to triangular-deltate, 5—25 × 3—15 cm, bases ± cordate, margins entire, apices acute to attenuate, faces sericeous, tomentose, tomentulose, or velutinous (at least abaxially, usually gland-dotted as well), sometimes glabrescent.
Heads
usually borne singly, sometimes 2—3+.
Involucres
hemispheric to turbinate, 12—25 mm diam.
Outer phyllaries
lanceolate to oblance-olate or linear, (15—)20—25(—30+) mm, equaling or surpassing inner, apices acute to acuminate.
Ray laminae
20—40 mm.
2
n
= 38.
Flowering (Apr—)May—Jun(—Jul). Openings, banks, flats, meadows, ridges, sagebrush scrub, conifer forests; (100—)900—2500(—3000) m; Alta., B.C.; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., S.Dak. , Utah, Wash., Wyo.
Balsamorhiza sagittata
grows east of the Cascade-Sierra axis to the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills. It is one of the more spectacular of all spring-flowering plants in the northwestern United States. Hybrids occur along lines of contact between
B. sagittata
and almost all species of sect.
Balsamorhiza
except
B. macrophylla
(a high polyploid).
