Tall Fleabane Erigeron elatior Aster family (Asteraceae)
Tall Fleabane (Erigeron elatior) has nodding, wooly, pink-tinged flower buds and flowers with numerous very light lavender . The leaves and stems are also hairy but not nearly as hairy as the buds and underside of the flower head. The plant tends to grow in clusters making it very eye-catching. Leaves are usually light green and broader at the base than at the tapering and pointed tip.
"Elatior" is from the Latin for "tall." Charles Parry collected this Erigeron in Colorado in 1861 and Asa Gray named it Erigeron grandiflorum variety elatius in 1862. Edwin Greene gave it its present name in 1897.
, from a short (woody base of non-woody ), stems to 28" tall, often purple below, leafy throughout, spreading-hairy and above. Leaves from 1 to 4" long and 1/4 to 1" wide, the lowermost smaller than the middle ones and commonly withered at blooming time, to , , lower leaves , becoming and somewhat upward. Flowerheads 1-3. to almost an inch wide and 1/3" high, the densely wooly hairy with some red purple tinges, nearly equal in length, drawn out at the , purple, and tips. 75-150, pink or pink-purple or white from 1/2 to almost 1" long and 1/20" wide. double. a 2-, hairy .
