Perennials, 4-25(-50) cm; taprooted, caudices simple or branched, branches sometimes rhizomelike. Stems ascending to erect, sparsely to densely hispido-pilose to glabrate, minutely glandular. Leaves mostly basal (usually persistent) or basal and cauline (petioles prominently ciliate, hairs spreading, thick-based); blades narrowly oblanceolate to linear-oblong, 10-50(-80) × 1-4 mm, margins entire, usually ciliate, faces usually hirsute to hirsuto-villous, sometimes substrigose to glabrate, eglandular; cauline unreduced or gradually reduced distally. Heads 1-5. Involucres 4-7 × 7-12(-15) mm. Phyllaries in 2-4 series (midvein region orange or yellowish), hirsute to hirsuto-villous, ± minutely glandular. Ray florets 50-100(-125); corollas white to pink or blue, 6-15 mm, laminae reflexing. Disc corollas 3-5 mm (throats indurate and inflated, hirsuto-strigose, hairs biseriate, sharply pointed). Cypselae 1.2-1.8 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigoso-hirsute; pappi: outer of scales (0.2-0.5 mm), inner of (7-)10-14(-15) bristles.

Erigeron concinnus has been treated within E. pumilus; G. L. Nesom (1983b) found that these species approach each other closely in geographic range without intergradation.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Herbaceous perennials, much branching, to 50 cm tall, leafy, the herbage densely hispid or hirsute with spreading hairs, sometimes glandular, arising from a woody caudex with a taproot.

Leaves: Alternate, basal or cauline, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, up to 10 cm long but usually shorter.

Flowers: Heads small, radiate, hemispheric, the rays white, pink, or blue, reflexed, 50-100, to 15 mm long and 1 mm wide, the disk 7-15 mm wide, yellow, involucres 4-7 mm high, hirsute and sometimes glandular, phyllaries hirsute to villous, more or less glandular, in 2-4 series.

Fruits: Achenes 2 nerved, sparsely strigose to hirsute. Pappus sparse, of subequal capillary bristles, the inner of bristles, the outer of broad scales.

Ecology: Found in dry, sandy or gravelly soils, on mesas, slopes, in pine and juniper communities, from 3,000-8,000 ft (914-2438 m); flowering April-October.

Distribution: Montana to British Columbia, south to New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Notes: Some good identifiers for this species are the perennial plants, the rays to 15 mm long, and the hirsute or hispid leaves and plant.

Ethnobotany: Cold infusion taken or used for body pain, as disinfectant, for gonorrhea, and as an aid in difficult labor.

Etymology: Erigeron means Early-Old-Man, as named by Theophrastus, while concinnus means neat, well-made, or elegant.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010, LCrumbacher