Montane.  Woodlands.  Summer.
Little Taylor Creek Trail. August 20, 2007.

Erigeron eximius is found in all Four Corners states but it is often overlooked even though it can be abundant.  Along a short section of the Little Taylor Creek Trail where these photographs were taken, E. eximius was showy in its typical fashion, spreading by underground roots and producing a mass of basal leaves.  Very few of these basal leaf clusters produce flower stalks, as the photographs show.

Interestingly, as common as this plant is in Montezuma and Dolores Counties, Colorado, it is not recorded in either the University of Colorado Herbarium or in the Catalog of Four Corners Flora.  Such omissions are not uncommon, and there is, therefore, still much that amateur botanists can discover and contribute.

Click to see Oreochrysum parryi which, until it produces its small yellow flowers, can be confused with E. eximius, because it grows in similar habitats and also produces a vast number of basal leaves and few flowering stalks.

Edward Greene named this plant in 1898 from a specimen he collected in Colorado in 1896.  "Eximius" is Latin for "extraordinary" or "splendid".

Montane.  Woodlands.  Summer.
Little Taylor Creek Trail. August 20, 2007.

Erigeron eximius basal and lower leaves have long petioles; the blades range from two to seven inches long; stem leaves are sparse and upper stem leaves clasp the stem and are considerably reduced in size.  The basal leaves of the plants in these photographs were five to seven inches long and the stem leaves also were larger than the length given in most botanical keys.  They often considerably surpass the internode length (the distance between the point where each leaf is attached to the stem).  (Stem leaves are said by Weber to be "little if at all longer than the internodes".)

Montane.  Woodlands.  Summer.
Little Taylor Creek Trail. August 20, 2007.

Erigeron eximius stems range from four to twenty four inches tall and are generally straight and unbranched until they reach the top where they branch into several flower heads.  You can see the typical arched branching in the bottom center of the photograph.  This plant is about eighteen inches tall.

Ray flowers range from very light blue-pink to white and the latter can make the plant appear very similar to Erigeron coulteri.  If you flip the flower head over and look at the hairs of E. coulteri you will see that they are fairly straight, long, and mostly dark; those of E. eximius are straight, short, and white  --  and not so numerous. You will also notice that the tips of the phyllaries of E. eximius are often purple and have short, sticky (glandular) hairs.

Montane.  Woodlands.  Summer.
Little Taylor Creek Trail. August 20, 2007.

Erigeron eximius phyllaries are green (sometimes with red-tinged tips); they range from equal in length to five different lengths (the photograph at left shows two, maybe three different lengths of phyllaries); and the phyllaries are glandular (sticky -- you can see a few dark spots on the phyllaries in the photograph.  These are grains of sand stuck to the glandular hairs of the phyllaries).

Pappus hairs, the fine silky hairs that top each seed (not shown), are in two rows; the inner row is about three millimeters long and the outer row is so short (about a fifth of a millimeter) that it really requires a microscope to see.  The pappus hairs are tawny.

The number of rows of phyllaries and pappus hairs and their shape and color are keys to identifying members of the Sunflower Family.  One needs a good quality 10 power hand lens to carry in the field to see and enjoy these details.