Alternate name: Pacific Alpinegold, Pacific Hulsea
Family: Asteraceae, Aster view all from this family
Description A low, tufted, densely glandular-hairy plant with sparsely leafy stems, each topped by a flower head with 25-50 short, narrow yellow rays surrounding a yellow disk.
Flowers: heads 2-3 1/2" (5-8.8 cm) wide, with a broad disk and narrow, overlapping bracts all about the same length.
Leaves: lower to 6" (15 cm), succulent, lanceolate, often with scalloped or lobed edges.
Fruit: seed-like, narrow, about 1/2" (1.3 cm) long, with 4 scales at top.
Height: 6-14" (15-35 cm).
Flower July-September.
Habitat Sand or gravel, rock crevices high in the mountains.
Range Idaho and southwestern Montana to northeastern Oregon and the mountains along the eastern edge of California.
Discussion The similar Dwarf Hulsea (H. nana), from the mountains of Washington, Oregon, and northern California, is more compact, rarely more than 4" (10 cm) high, with a flower stalk that is usually leafless, and a head with only about 21 rays.
