Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous perennials, stems simple or branching, to 60 cm tall, puberulent to glabrous below, glandular in the inflorescence, rhizomatous.

Leaves: Alternate, basal leaves oblanceolate to oval, petioled, cauline leaves few and not much reduced, the middle leaves to 5 mm wide or more, ovate to oblong, glabrous to somewhat glandular.

Flowers: Heads radiate, rays white, pink, or blue, 40-80, 12-20 mm long, disks yellow, involucres 6-9 mm high, glandular, sometimes with a few long hairs, phyllaries more or less equal.

Fruits: Achenes hairy. Pappus sparse, of subequal capillary bristles, the inner of 20-25 long bristles, the outer of short, sometimes few stiff bristles.

Ecology: Found in coniferous forests, from 6,500-10,000 ft (1981-3048 m); flowering July-September.

Distribution: Wyoming to Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Notes: Good identifiers for this species include the large heads and leaves, the glabrous to puberulent herbage (with few or no long hairs), and the white or pink rays.

Ethnobotany: Cold infusion taken ceremonially, as a cough medicine, for fever, as a hunting medicine, taken for influenza, and as a protection from witches.

Etymology: Erigeron means Early-Old-Man, as named by Theophrastus, while eximius is from the Latin eximius for most beautiful, distinguished, uncommon.

Synonyms: Erigeron superbus

Editor: SBuckley, 2010, LCrumbacher