Colorado Asterids, Apiaceae, and Ericales

Annual herb with large heads, 17-30 yellow ray florets, brown/purple-brown disk florets, and alternate, broadly ovate to cordate leaves; ancestor of the cultivated sunflower.

Helianthus annuus

Woody-caudex perennial subshrub, silvery-silky and highly aromatic throughout; mat-forming; indicator of overgrazed range; small, nodding, discoid heads (no ray florets).

Artemisia frigida

Perennial herb with erect stems, clasping (amplexicaul) cauline leaves, and heads featuring 50-100+ narrow, blue-lavender to violet ray florets.

Erigeron speciosus

Perennial herb with stout, stiff-hairy stems and yellow heads arranged in a flat-topped to dome-shaped corymb (unlike typical one-sided goldenrod plumes).

Solidago rigida

Perennial herb with linear, resin-dotted leaves and flowers opening from the top of the spike downward (basipetal); heads discoid with pink-purple corollas and plumose pappus bristles.

Liatris punctata

Perennial herb featuring 2-3 pairs of opposite stem leaves (highly diagnostic for its genus), basal cordate leaves, and a usually solitary head with yellow rays.

Arnica cordifolia

Sticky-resinous annual or short-lived perennial with alternate, clasping leaves and heads featuring strongly reflexed, conspicuously sticky-white-resinous phyllaries.

Grindelia squarrosa

Perennial herb with large heads featuring bicolored (yellow with red-purple base) 3-lobed rays, and persistent chaffy receptacle bracts with bristle-like tips.

Gaillardia aristata

Woody-caudex perennial endemic to the eastern slope of the CO Rockies; alternate linear leaves and numerous small heads with 15-25 white ray florets.

Symphyotrichum porteri

Low-growing perennial from a taproot; early-blooming wildflower with compound umbels of mixed white and dark purple/maroon petals giving a speckled appearance.

Lomatium orientale

Massive perennial herb (1-2.5m) with phototoxic sap, palmately 3-lobed leaves, and very large compound umbels with enlarged, asymmetric outer petals.

Heracleum maximum

Low cushion-forming perennial strictly restricted to alpine tundra; basal pinnately compound leaves in a rosette and small compound umbels with yellow petals.

Oreoxis alpina

Biennial or short-lived perennial with alternate, pinnately divided leaves; salverform scarlet corolla with a long tube; primary hummingbird-pollinated mountain wildflower in CO.

Ipomopsis aggregata

Late-season blooming perennial with opposite sessile leaves and blue to blue-violet tubular-campanulate corollas featuring fringed interlobar appendages (plaits) between the lobes.

Gentiana affinis

Monocarpic perennial growing as a basal rosette for 20-80+ years before producing a single massive (1-2m) flowering stalk; 4-merous greenish-white flowers with purple spots and fringed nectary pits.

Frasera speciosa

Protected annual or biennial herb with opposite leaves and 4-merous, blue to blue-violet tubular-to-funnel-shaped corollas with deeply fringed/laciniate petal margins.

Gentianopsis thermalis

Branching perennial herb with opposite, characteristically drooping leaves and milky latex; campanulate corollas are white with pink stripes inside; fruit of paired follicles.

Apocynum androsaemifolium

Stout perennial herb with milky latex and large, densely pubescent opposite leaves; critical monarch host plant; flowers with 5 reflexed petals and a corona of 5 hoods with prominent horns.

Asclepias speciosa

Deep-rooted prairie specialist with alternate to opposite leaves; green corollas and greenish corona hoods that lack horns.

Asclepias viridiflora