51.
Erigeron canus
A. Gray, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n. s. 4: 67. 1849.
Hoary fleabane
Erigeron phoenicodontus S. F. Blake
Perennials,
5—35 cm; taprooted, caudex branches relatively thick, usually retaining old leaf bases.
Stems
erect, densely white strigoso-canescent, eglandular.
Leaves
mostly basal (persistent , ± erect; leaf bases broadened or not, not thickened and whitish-indurate); blades linear-oblanceolate to oblanceolate, 20—100 × 2—5(—7) mm, cauline sharply reduced or 0 (restricted to proximal
1
/ 4 —
1
/ 2 ), margins entire , faces densely white strigoso-canescent, eglandular.
Heads
1(—4).
Involucres
5—7 × 9—16 mm.
Phyllaries
in 3—4 series, densely hirsute to strigoso-hirsute, minutely glandular.
Ray florets
20—50(—70); corollas white to light blue, 7—12 mm, laminae reflexing, sometimes tardily.
Disc corollas
3.7—5.6 mm.
Cypselae
(nearly terete,) 2.8—3.5 mm, (8—)10—14-nerved, faces glabrous;
pappi:
outer of setae or bristles, inner of 24—36 bristles.
2
n
= 18.
Flowering May—Jul(—Aug). Dry hills, grasslands, often in gravelly or shaley soil, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, pine-oak, oak; 1700—2700 m; Ariz., Colo., Kans., Nebr., N.Mex., Okla., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo.; Mexico (Chihuahua).
