| Erigerons,
what we often call "Daisies" or "Fleabanes", are a large and complex genus
with several dozen species common in the Four Corners, more than 130
species in western North America, and over 200 species
world-wide.
Erigerons have yellow disk flowers and numerous, narrow ray flowers that are white, pink, or purple (but not yellow). Linnaeus named this genus in 1753. The genus name is from the Greek "eri" ("early") + "geron" ("old man", as in "geriatrics"), perhaps referring to characteristics of some now unknown plant or perhaps to the early flowering of many species and to the bristly pappus of the developing seed or to the puffy, grizzled appearance of the mature seed head. |
|
Erigeron elatior (Daisy) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Subalpine.
Meadows. Summer. Erigeron elatior has nodding, wooly, pink-tinged flower buds
and flowers with numerous very light lavender ray flowers.
The leaves and stems are also hairy but not nearly as hairy as the buds and underside of the flower head. The plant tends to grow in clusters making it very eye-catching. Leaves are usually light green and broader at the base than at the tapering and pointed tip. "Elatior" is from the Latin for "tall". Charles Parry collected this Erigeron in Colorado in 1861 and Asa Gray named it Erigeron grandiflorum variety elatius in 1862. Edwin Greene gave it its present name in 1897. |
