Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Beautiful Fleabane
Erigeron formosissimus
Aster family (Asteraceae)

Erigeron formosissimus can cover extensive areas because they emerge from spreading underground roots. Most clusters of leaves that arise from these roots do not produce flower stems but when they do the stems lean outward. Stems eventually grow erect to 6-12 inches tall and are generally topped by just one flower, but they also can have several flower heads that branch from the main stem a few inches below the upper flower. Stem leaves are and considerably shorter than the . This is a handsome and showy plant which can, from a distance, be confused with E. speciosus, but that plant is much taller, and has leafy stems. Take a close look.

E. formosissimus was first collected for science by Elmer Wooton in New Mexico and it was named by Edward Greene in 1898. "Formos" is Latin for "graceful, beautiful" and with the Latin male superlative ending of "issimus" (feminine is "issima" and neuter is "issimum") the word "formosissimus" means "most graceful and beautiful."


© Mary Ellen (Mel) Harte, Bugwood.org

Description

A , up to 12" tall, with stems that bend outward and then upward from the ground, usually at the top. The are 1-4" long, and broader at the tip, the leaves on the stem are much smaller. Each stem has 1-6 flower heads, each flower head about 1/4" high, 1/2" wide, with , hairy, , all of about equal length, arranged in a single row, and having long tapering, tips. The flower heads have 75-150 purple, pink or white , and yellow flowers. The have two and a double .

Field Marks

Sunflower family plant with stems that lie flat, bend upward at the end, and terminate in a few very showy pale pink or purple flowers.

© Al Schneider

ray flowers -- The outer petals of a sunflower or daisy are ray flowers.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

nerves -- Another name for a vein.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

disc flowers are those in the center of a sunflower or daisy. Not a ray flower.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

appressed -- pressed close or flat against another surface as in hairs appressed against a stem.

pappus -- Small scales, bristles or hairs at the top of the seed in Asteraceae. For example, dandelion parachutes. Plural: pappi.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.