Foothills, montane.  Meadows, disturbed areas.  Spring, summer.
Prater Ridge Trail, Mesa Verde National Park, August 13, 2005.

Erigeron divergens is a highly variable, many branched, densely hairy plant with rather short upper stem leaves which are most often vertical, almost hugging the stem.  The numerous ray flowers of Erigeron divergens are very light purple, often, as in this case, almost white.  The plant in the left photo is eight inches tall but E. divergens can grow to over a foot tall.  Leaves vary in width and the intensity of their green coloring, but they are most often less than a quarter inch wide and drab green.  Flowers are typically about an inch across and are far more numerous on some plants than on others.  There were about a dozen plants near each other in the area of the left photo, but as the photograph at the top of the page shows, there can be many dozens near each other.  The plants in the left photo grow in good soils with good moisture; but the plant can grow in gravels and sand and do well with little moisture.

Thomas Nuttall collected the first specimen of this plant for science in the Rockies in the 1830s and Torrey and Gray named it in 1841.

Foothills, montane.  Meadows, disturbed areas.  Spring, summer.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, August 29, 2006.

Foothills, montane.  Meadows, disturbed areas.  Spring, summer.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, August 29, 2006.