[Butterweeds and Groundsels: The Genus Packera in the Cascade Mts. of Oregon and Washington]

Tall Butterweed, Woolly Butterweed, Woolly Groundsel

Packera cana

Synonyms: Senecio canus, Senecio convallium, Senecio hallii, Senecio hallii var. discoidea, Senecio harbourii, Senecio howellii, Senecio purshianus

Woolly butterweed as seen at at left on the summit of Lookout Mountain, Badger Creek Wilderness.......July 17, 2016. The photo at right shows the basal leaf rosette of woolly butterweed as seen at a cindery area long the west loop trail between the trailhead at High Prairie and the summit of Lookout Mountain, Badger Creek Wilderness.......July 17, 2016.

Tall Butterweed, Woolly Butterweed, Woolly Groundsel: Packera cana (Synonyms: Senecio canus, Senecio convallium, Senecio hallii, Senecio hallii var. discoidea, Senecio harbourii, Senecio howellii, Senecio purshianus)

The photo at right shows woolly butterweed as seen from alongside US 26 east of Mitchell, OR........June 23, 1995.

Characteristics:

Woolly butterweed is a fairly easy butterweed to identify due to its dry habitat and the silvery coloration of the leaves and stems. It is an erect, several-stemmed perennial from 10 to 40 cm in height. It is fairly strongly white-tomentose, although this may be reduced with age. The basal and lower stem leaves are tufted and are narrowly oblanceolate to broadly elliptic or subovate in shape. Individual leaf blades range from 1 to 7 cm in length and 4 - 30 mm wide and have varied petioles, from short to long. The stem leaves are linear or oblong in shape with toothed to pinnatifid margins. The upper leaves are reduced in size and become almost bract-like.

The heads are several and sunflower-like, arranged in compound corymb. Both the ray and disc flowers are yellow. Each of the 6-10 individual rays are about 6 - 13 mm long. The involucres are 6-8 mm tall with approximately 15 fleshy bracts.

Habitat:

Woolly butterweed is found in arid, open and often rocky or sandy places from the sagebrush plains and foothills to well above timberline in the mountains.

Range:

Woolly butterweed is widespread east of the Cascades from British Columbia east to Saskatchewan and south to Nebraska, Colorado, and California.

Woolly butterweed as seen at the summit of Lookout Mountain, Badger Creek Wilderness.......July 17, 2017.

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The 3 photos above show close-up views of a rayless woolly butterweed, the scurfy-haired involucre, and a flower head of woolly butterweed as seen near the summit of Simcoe Butte in northern Klickitat County, south-central Washington.........June 16. 2007. (Click each of the 3 photos to see an enlarged verson.) The photo below shows a close-up of the dorsal surface of a basal leaf blade.

The photo at left shows woolly groundsel blooming at the Kiger Gorge Overlook, Steens Mountain, Harney County, Oregon........August 31, 2011. The photo at right shows woolly butterweed as seen on slopes near the summit of Simcoe Butte in northern Klickitat County, south-central Washington.......June 16, 2007. .

Woolly butterweed as seen at the summit of Lookout Mountain, Badger Creek Wilderness.......August 27, 2022.

Woolly groundsel as seen atop the Steens Mountain summit, Harney County, Oregon.........September 1, 2011.

Woolly groundsel as seen at left on rock outcrops near the summit of Table Rock, Monument Rock Wilderness.........August 2, 2011. The photo at right shows woolly groundsel in bloom on scree slopes on the west side of Lookout Mountain, Badger Creek Wilderness......July 30, 2021.

Leaves of Tall Butterweed, Woolly Butterweed, Woolly Groundsel: Packera cana (Synonyms: Senecio canus, Senecio convallium, Senecio hallii, Senecio hallii var. discoidea, Senecio harbourii, Senecio howellii, Senecio purshianus)

Leaves from the plant shown directly above. The upper leaf is either a basal leaf or one from the lower stem. The lower leaf is a leaf from higher on the stem.