Navajo fleabane

Distasis concinna Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Beechey Voy., 350. 1839; E. pumilus Nuttall var. concinnus (Hooker & Arnott) Dorn

Perennials, 4–25(–50) cm; taprooted, caudices simple or branched, branches sometimes rhizomelike. Stems ascending to erect, sparsely to densely hispido-pilose to glabrate, minutely glandular. Leaves mostly basal (usually persistent) or basal and cauline (petioles prominently ciliate, hairs spreading, thick-based); blades narrowly oblanceolate to linear-oblong, 10–50(–80) × 1–4 mm, margins entire, usually ciliate, faces usually hirsute to hirsuto-villous, sometimes substrigose to glabrate, eglandular; cauline unreduced or gradually reduced distally. Heads 1–5. Involucres 4–7 × 7–12(–15) mm. Phyllaries in 2–4 series (midvein region orange or yellowish), hirsute to hirsuto-villous, ± minutely glandular. Ray florets 50–100(–125); corollas white to pink or blue, 6–15 mm, laminae reflexing. Disc corollas 3–5 mm (throats indurate and inflated, hirsuto-strigose, hairs biseriate, sharply pointed). Cypselae 1.2–1.8 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigoso-hirsute; pappi: outer of scales (0.2–0.5 mm), inner of (7–)10–14(–15) bristles.

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora): w United States.

Erigeron concinnus has been treated within E. pumilus; G. L. Nesom (1983b) found that these species approach each other closely in geographic range without intergradation.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Nesom, G. L. 1983b. Taxonomy of Erigeron concinnus (Asteraceae) and its separation from E. pumilus. Sida 10: 159–166.