Distribution: Occurring east of the Cascades crest in Washington; southern British Columbia to eastern Oregon, east to Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Habitat: Open, usually dry places, often among sagebrush.

Flowers: June-August

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Pollination: Bees, butterflies, flies, apomixis?

Perennial with a tap-root, 1-5 dm. tall, sub-erect, generally purplish at the base, the herbage covered densely with short, spreading hairs.

Basal leaves triple-nerved, elongate, acute, tapering gradually below, up to 25 cm. long including the petiole, and 1 cm. wide; cauline leaves reduced.

Heads 1-16 in an open inflorescence; involucres 5-7 mm. high, grey-hairy, its bracts somewhat imbricate; rays 35-65, pistillate, deep blue or occasionally pink, 7-13 mm. long; pappus double, the inner of 20-30 bristles.