Helianthella parryi
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Montane. Openings, woodlands. Summer.
Mount Linnaeus Trail, Abajo Mountains, Utah, July 16, 2009.

Helianthella parryi is found in most mountainous counties of New Mexico and Colorado, is rare in one county (Apache) in Arizona, and, with the plant shown here, is now known from one county (San Juan) in Utah.  It thus has a much more limited range than its quite similar cousin, Helianthella quinquenervis which is found throughout the West with the exception of Washington and Oregon. 

H. parryi stands 20-50 cm tall (H. quinquenervis is 50-150 cm), its flower head is 1.5-2 cm wide exclusive of the ray flowers (H. quinquenervis is 4-5 cm), its ray flowers number 8-14 (H. quinquenervis has 13-21 rays, usually toward the upper end), and its leaves are less than 10 cm long (H. quinquenervis leaves are up to 50 cm long).

Asa Gray named this plant in 1864, probably from a specimen collected a few years earlier by Charles Parry, eminent 19th century botanist and "King of Colorado Botany" (according to Hooker).  (Click for more biographical information.)

Helianthella parryi
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Montane. Openings, woodlands. Summer.
Mount Linnaeus Trail, Abajo Mountains, Utah, July 16, 2009.

Helianthella parryi
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Montane. Openings, woodlands. Summer.
Mount Linnaeus Trail, Abajo Mountains, Utah, July 16, 2009.

Helianthella parryi
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Montane. Openings, woodlands. Summer.
Mount Linnaeus Trail, Abajo Mountains, Utah, July 16, 2009.