In rear of Visitor Center (N35D33'02.207 X W105D41'10.829)
Flowers first observed: 9/5/17
The Plant w/Flowers
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The Flower
Flowers 50X
Distribution
"Found on rocky slopes, in canyons, and along roadsides from 3,000-11,500 ft (914-3505 m); flowers March-October. Distribution: AZ, NM, CO, UT, and WY" (SEINet)
Description
"Biennial to short-lived perennial herbs, 10-80 cm tall; stems erect, moderately branched; herbage sometimes puberulent or canescent, stipitate-glandular. Leaves: Alternate and sessile along the stems; blades linear to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 2-8 cm long, margins entire to irregularly dentate or serrate, faces glabrous or puberulent, often sparsely stipitate-glandular; upper leaves sometimes clasping the stems. Flowers: Flower heads showy, radiate, purple with yellow centers, at the tips of branchlets; involucres broadly turbinate to hemispheric, 7-15 mm high and one to three times as wide, the bracts (phyllaries) in 5-10 well-graduated series, the outer phyllaries much shorter than the inner; phyllary bases straw colored and firm (indurate) and phyllary tips herbaceous, green to red, long-acuminate, spreading to reflexed; phyllary outer surface often covered with gland-tipped hairs; rays 12-60 per flower head, the laminae (ray petals) 10-25 mm long, violet to purple; disc florets yellow. Fruits: Achenes 2-3 mm long, sparsely villous with fine, slightly appressed hairs; topped with a pappus of bristles." (SEINet)
Ethnobotanical Uses
Unknown, but other species in the genus have many uses. (SEINet)