Authors: Forbes   Pursh  

Botanical Description

perennial of great diversity, 30-90cm tall, few to much branched, erect or decumbent from a woody base. Leaves usually dense, entire to pinnate, l-8cm long, grey woolly especially beneath. Flowerheads solitary or in loose corymbs on long naked peduncles, 1.8-4cm across (to 5.5 in E.e. var. grandiflorum), bright yellow, late spring to late summer. British Columbia to Montana and California and Rocky Mountains, in various habitats from near sea level to 3000m. At least eleven varieties have been recognised and many intermediaries. Of these the following are dwarfest and hardiest: Ed. var. monoense (syn. E. lutescens): almost cushion-forming from a branching caudex, 8-15cm tall in bloom. Leaves spathulate, entire or three-lobed or toothed, 5-20mm long. Flowerheads 1.8-2.4cm wide. Open pine forest, fellfields, rocky slopes at 2000-3000m. Ed. var. integrifolium, tufted, with many stems 15-20cm high. Leaves and flowers like var. monoense. Scrub, forest glades and rocky plateaux at 120-2300m.