Pyrrocoma carthamoides

Pyrrocoma carthamoides is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name largeflower goldenweed.^[1] It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northeastern California to Wyoming, where it is known from grassland, woodlands, forests, barren areas, and other habitat. It is a perennial herb growing from a taproot and producing one or more stems to about half a meter in maximum length, the stems reddish-green and leafy. The largest leaves are at the base of the stem, measuring up to 20 centimeters long, lance-shaped with spiny sawtoothed edges. Leaves higher on the stem are smaller and hairier. The inflorescence is a single flower head or a cluster of up to four. Each bell-shaped head is lined with phyllaries each up to 2 centimeters long. It has many yellow disc florets surrounded by a fringe of yellow ray florets up to 7 millimeters long; ray florets are occasionally absent. The fruit is an achene which may be well over a centimeter in length including its pappus.

There are three varieties of this species; var. subsquarrosa is an uncommon type known only from southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming.

References

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment: var. cusickii
• USDA Plants Profile
• Flora of North America