Mostly basal, highly dissected leaves; stalks slim with few leaves and topped by a few solitary blooms.
Perennial from a woody base. Mostly basal, pinnately lobed leaves, densely hairy herbage and yellow, curling corollas of the disc only flower heads help identify this plant.
Habitat
Scattered among pines, dry rocky slopes, mesas, mostly in coniferous forests.
Flower Characteristics
Flower heads, 1 inch wide, round and spiky on long leafless stalks. Each blossom is made up of enlarged disc flowers (no ray flowers) with protruding flower parts and is cupped by fuzzy whitish-green bracts. Can appear singly or in clusters.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Woolly basal leaves, 3 to 8 inches long, are sticky, usually feather-like and divided into thread-like deep lobes; can be simple and narrowly oval; sometimes there are a few much smaller leaves along the stem.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
4 angled, densely short-hairy; topped with a pappus of 12 to 22 linear-oblong scales.