Shaggy fleabane

Perennials, 5–30(–50) cm; taprooted, caudices with relatively short and thick branches. Stems erect, hirsute to hispido-hirsute (often with slightly deflexed hairs), minutely to stipitate glandular. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline (petioles prominently ciliate, hairs thick-based, spreading); basal blades oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, 20–80 × 1–4(–5) mm, margins entire, faces hispid to hispido-hirsute, little, if at all, glandular; cauline on distal ¹ / 2 – ³ / 4 of stems, blades becoming linear-lanceolate, little reduced distally. Heads 1–5(–50). Involucres 4–7 × 7–15 mm. Phyllaries in 2–4 series (midvein region orange to yellowish), hirsute to hispido-hirsute, minutely glandular. Ray florets 50–100; corollas white to pink, less commonly bluish, 6–15 mm, laminae reflexing. Disc corollas 3–5 mm (throats distinctly indurate and inflated, glabrous or sparsely puberulent with glandular-viscid, hairs blunt). Cypselae 1.4–1.8 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of setae or subulate scales (0.1–0.3 mm), inner of 12–27 bristles.

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora): w North America.