1 to several stems from base, generally branched above and bushy. Several blue or purple daisy-like flowers with yellow centers on branching stems.
Biennial or short-lived perennial, leaves alternate, stalkless, toothed, teeth often tipped with spines. Herbage often hairy-glandular. Ray flowers blue or purple; phyllaries in series of 5 to 12, tips acute to long-acuminate, spreading to reflexed.
Habitat
Found in alluvial soils and on slopes in creosote shrubland to pine-oak and juniper woodlands.
Flower Characteristics
Blue or purple rays, yellow disc flowers, to 1 inch wide. Bracts (phyllaries) in 5 to 12 series, well graduated in length with the outer phyllaries much shorter than the inner.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Sessile and sandpapery, 1 to 3 inches long, margins usually toothed, teeth often tipped with tiny hair-like spines.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Achenes are lined, smooth to velvety.
Seeds topped with bristles.