Stems often purple proximally. Leaves (3-)6-15 cm, sometimes slightly succulent, clasping or sub-clasping, less commonly non-clasping, relatively unreduced to arrays, distal sometimes grading into phyllaries. Ray corollas 6-10 mm. Disc corollas 7-9 mm, lobes spreading. 2n = 18.
Flowering Jul-Sep. Moist to dry meadows and roadsides, wooded slopes, often in partially shaded understory; 2400-3800 m; Ariz., Colo., Nev., N.Mex., Utah, Wyo.; Mexico (Chihuahua).
Oreochrysum parryi was noted by A. Cronquist (1994, p. 244) to occur in 'the Ruby Mts. of Elko Co., Nevada, in a glandular-puberulent, perhaps varietally separable phase.' (Chihuahua-collected by C. G. Pringle from a single locality; it has never been recollected.)
General: Perennial, 10-60 cm tall; stems usually solitary, erect, simple, the base often purplish, puberulent or minutely hirsute, glandular-stalked; rhizomes long, slender, becoming woody.
Leaves: Basal and cauline, alternate, oblanceolate to spatulate- obovate or elliptic, 3-15 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, sometimes slightly succulent, glabrous to scabrous-puberulent, minutely stipitate-glandular or gland-dotted, margins entire, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded; basal and lower cauline blades petiolate, upper cauline blades sessile.
Flowers: Heads in clusters of 2-3, terminating the branches; involucre somewhat spheric, 2.5-3.5 cm long, 3-6.5 cm wide; phyllaries in 8-10 series, linear, puberulent and more-or-less cobwebby tomentose, spine-tipped, the spines 3-6 mm long, yellow; disk flowers only, numerous, 2.2-2.5 cm long, reddish purple to pink, sometimes white; receptacle fleshy, conspicuously honeycombed; flowers June-September.
Fruits: Achene, spindle-shaped, 3-5 mm long, plump but compressed, glabrous, several-veined; pappus mostly in 2 series, of 40-60 minutely barbed bristles.
Ecology: Open to wooded slopes, meadows, roadsides, coniferous forests, partially shaded habitats; 2300-3700 m (7500- 12000 ft); Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Graham, Greenlee, Navajo, and Pima counties; southwestern U.S., Mexico.
Notes: Oreochrysum parryi shares some characteristics with Solidago spp. but it is distinguished from Solidago primarily by having stipitate-glandular herbage, large heads in corymb-like arrays, and prominent ray flowers.
Editor: Springer et al. 2008
