Elegant aster

Aster perelegans A. Nelson & J. F. Macbride; Eucephalus perelegans (A. Nelson & J. F. Macbride) W. A. Weber

Perennials 30–70 cm (caudices woody; herbage scabrous). Stems erect, moderately scabrous and/or glandular. Leaves: mid and cauline blades linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, 2–6 cm × 3–10 mm, faces moderately scabrous and ± short-stipitate-glandular. Heads 3–8(–15) in racemiform to corymbiform arrays. Peduncles glandular-puberulent. Involucres turbinate-cylindric, 6–9 mm. Phyllaries in 3–5 series (often purplish at margins), ovate, margins eciliate, apices acute, abaxial faces moderately to densely puberulent and glandular. Rays usually 5 or 8, purple. Cypselae strigose; pappus bristles in 2 series, barbellate. 2n = 18.

Flowering Jul–Aug. Open meadows, aspen forests, rocky open slopes; 1100–3200 m; Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah.