Nodding microseris or silverpuffs

Scorzonella nutans Hooker, London J. Bot. 6: 253. 1847

Perennials, 10–70 cm; taprooted . Stems branched, leafy distally. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate (proximally, distal often sessile, clasping); blades linear to oblanceolate, 5–30 cm, margins entire or remotely dentate to pinnately lobed (usually with narrow rachises and linear teeth or lobes), apices acuminate, faces glabrous or lightly scurfy-puberulent. Peduncles erect or ascending (4–35 cm), ebracteate or leafy. Involucres broadly to narrowly ovoid in fruit, 8–22 mm. Phyllaries: apices erect, abaxial faces glabrous or scurfy-puberulent; outer lanceolate to triangular or linear, apices acute or acuminate; inner lanceolate, apices acuminate, both faces usually lightly black-villous. Florets 10–75; corollas yellow, surpassing phyllaries by 5+ mm. Cypselae columnar, 3.5–8 mm; pappi of 15–30, silvery, linear to lanceolate or oblong, (flat, glabrous) aristate scales 1–3(–5) mm (margins entire, apices acute or lacerate), aristae (slender) plumose. 2n = 18.

Flowering Apr-–Jul. Various soils, grasslands, brushlands, woodlands, and coniferous forests; 100–3000 m; Alta ., B.C.. Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.