Gray-hairy

Duration: Annual, Biennial, Perennial

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert, Upland

Flower Color: Purple, White (rare)

Flowering Season: Late spring, Summer, Fall

Height: Up to 4 feet (1.2 m) tall

Description: The flower heads have numerous, slender, purple rays, golden yellow disks, and appressed, spreading, or reflexed phyllaries (bracts at the base of the flower heads) with green, hairy, pointed or spiny tips and mostly hairless, greenish white bases. The flower heads are followed by bristly, rounded, tan-colored seed heads. The leaves are green, alternate, linear to narrowly lance-shaped, and either smooth-edged or edged with small, spine-tipped teeth. The stems are slender, green, erect, and openly branched above. The leaves, stems, and flower stalks are variably hairy grayish white, finely hairy, or sometimes hairless, and they may have a few stalked glandular hairs mixed in with the other types of hairs.