Thrifty goldenweed

Haplopappus armerioides (Nuttall) A. Gray

Plants cespitose, sometimes densely so, 2–29 cm; taproots stout. Stems proximally clothed with marcescent leaves, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely scabrous, usually viscid, sometimes eglandular. Leaves basal; narrowly petiolate; blades , 1- or 3-nerved, linear to narrowly oblanceolate or spatulate, 17–90 × 1–7(–12) mm, rigid, attenuate, margins sometimes ciliate (often minutely), viscid-glandular veins conspicuously raised abaxially, apices acute, faces ± scabrous or glabrous, gland-dotted, viscid. Heads 1–2(–4). Peduncles 10–130 mm, smooth and viscid. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, 8–21 × 6–14 mm. Phyllaries 12–26 in 3 series, 1- (or 3)-nerved (often ± keeled), strongly unequal, outer ovate to oblong, 3–8 × 1.5–4(–7.5) mm , inner oblong, 5.5–10 × 1.5–3.5 mm, proximally indurate, distally chartaceous, green portions about as long as broad, margins scarious, sometimes broadly so, entire, apices obtuse to rounded, minutely apiculate, viscid abaxially. Ray florets 5–15; laminae elliptic to oblong, 5.5–18.5 × 2–6 mm. Disc florets 21–39; corollas funnelform to vase-shaped, 4–9 mm, tubes glabrous or rarely sparsely hairy, lobes 0.7–1.3 mm, ca. ¹ / 8 – ¹ / 6 length of corollas; anthers 1.8–3.5 mm, style-branch appendages subulate to lanceolate, 1.2–2.3 × 0.5 mm, stigmatic lines 0.6–1.9 mm, ¹ / 2 – ³ / 4 as long as style-branch appendages. Cypselae 2–6 mm, lengths ¹ / 2 – ³ / 4 disc corollas, faces sericeous; pappus bristles 60–75, 3.5–7.5 mm, nearly equaling disc corollas.

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