Erigeron compositus
(Cutleaf Fleabane)
Asteraceae (Aster Family)
Erigeron compositus is a short, stout fleabane that grows in sandy, often disturbed soil from the foothills up to alpine basins.
Flowers
The flower head is typically fleabane -- a ring of numerous white ray flowers radiating out from a central circle of yellow disk flowers.
The E. compositus here all had about 30 white disk flowers, but the species varies from half to twice that many.
The petals (ligules) on the ray flowers are usually white up to 10 mm long.
The disk flower corollas are 3 or 4 mm-long tubes with triangular or squarish lobes at the end.
The achenes are about half as long as the corollas.
They're 2-nerved and covered with stiff hairs.
The pappus has a dozen or two bristles.
The involucres are shaped like bells, but upside-down. The long, narrow phyllaries can be in 2 or 3 ranks.
The involucre is 6 - 7 mm high and is made up of numerous, narrowly-lanceolate phyllaries. They split into triangular lobes at the top (about the last mm). They're hairy, mostly green, but the lobes at the tips are red.
The phyllaries are narrowly lanceolate, hairy and sometimes, like these, glandular.
The stems, leaves and phyllaries of E. compositus are usually hairy and sometimes glandular.
Leaves
The leaves are not typically fleabane. They're generally ovate to oval, but they're deeply insized and palmate. According to the Denver Botanic Gardens wildflower book, E. compositus is the only common Erigeron with palmate leaves.
Stems
The stems are green and reddish. They're stouter than a lot of other Erigeron species.
They often curve upwards or stand straight, but they also droop sometimes.
Habitat
These E. compositus are growing in rocky and sandy soil in open meadows on a hilltop. That's the species' typical habitat.
