Authors: Nutt.
from a densely branched woody rootstock, leaves dense, obovate to rounded, 5-12mm long, long-stalked, densely white woolly. Flowering stems slender, 10-20cm high with solitary head-like inflorescences. Flowers crowded, pale bright yellow, summer. California to British Columbia, Montana and Wyoming. A popular and attractive species for the alpine house and worth trying outside. Variable in the wild with several distinct subspecies and varieties. E.o. var. depressum has somewhat rusty-tinted, woolly, rounded leaves and white flowers. Subsp. eximeum is less compact in habit with very long stalked rounded greyish-tomentose leaves l-2cm long. Flowering stems 15-30cm tall with yellow-white flowers. California and Nevada in pine-juniper woodland at 1500-2100m. Subsp. vineum has broadly ovate white-felted leaves 7-15mm long and flowering stems 10-25cm high. Flowers in heads 2-3.5cm across, yellow-white to pinkish or rose. California, Oregon, Nevada, in dry, mainly rocky places in various habitats including pine-juniper and Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) woodland, montane coniferous forest and desert slopes at 1500-3250m. Var nivale (Canby) Jones has a densely matted woody habit with white-felted leaves 3-5mm long and flowering stems only l-6cm tall. Flowers white with red veins aging to rose suffused. Cahfornia, Sierra Nevada on flats and ridges and alpine fell fields at 3000-3600m. [Pl.165,167]
