Click to read about the Erigeron genus.

Subalpine, alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Colorado Trail above Hillside Drive, June 17 and June 28, 2021.

In the top photograph, two flower heads emerge at ground level and eleven days later another Erigeron grandiflorus flower head just a few feet away begins unfolding at the top of a stem just 1 inch tall.

Subalpine, alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Sharkstooth Trail, June 23, 2008.

Weber indicates that this dainty plant is "uncommon or rare on tundra" in Colorado, but it is considered fairly common on Colorado tundra by John Kartesz in his Synthesis, and the Flora of North America considers it fairly common in much of the Rockies. Ackerfield indicates that it is "common in alpine and subalpine meadows, 9,500-14,000 feet".

The disagreement over abundance is probably due to splitting and lumping.  Weber considers this species distinct from what he considers the much more common Erigeron simplex.  Ackerfield agrees with the Synthesis and the FNA and combines the two species into one, E. grandiflorus.  Interestingly (or maddeningly) Intermountain Flora and Utah Flora also combine the two species but into E. simplex!

Split or lumped, the plant is still lovely, grows primarily (if not exclusively) on tundra, is sometimes minute, and is certainly a treat to find.

Note also that almost all sources indicate that E. grandiflorus grows only in the alpine, but Ackerfield indicates that in Colorado it can be in the subalpine and even as low as 9,500 feet. The FNA indicates "alpine or near timberline" for the range through all of North America.

From collections made by Thomas Drummond in 1826 on the "Summits of the Rocky Mountains" in Canada, William Jackson Hooker named and described Erigeron grandiflorus in volume 2 of his 1834 Flora Boreali-Americana. (Click the title to read Hooker's description and click again to see the beautiful drawings of Erigeron grandiflorus in Hooker's Flora).

These E. grandiflorus are nearly four inches tall, have purple hairs on their phyllaries,  and have nearly glabrous (smooth, non-hairy) leaves.  The plant in the photograph immediately above is only an inch and a half tall, has white hairs on its phyllaries, and has minutely hairy leaves. The second photograph at the top of the page shows a plant about 1 1/2 inches tall.

Ray flowers may be white or various intensities of pink to lavender.

These variations are common for this species and are responsible for the variations in descriptions of this plant in various floras. (See the discussion below).

Subalpine, alpine. Tundra. Summer.
Sharkstooth Trail, June 23, 2008 and Calico Trail, Papoose Peak, July 17, 2008.

The hairs can range from shaggy white to shaggy purple.

Notice that the phyllaries are equal in length, as Welsh's A Utah Flora indicates they should be. The FNA and the Flora of the Four Corners Region indicate that the phyllaries are in 2-3 series. I think what should be said is that the phyllaries may be equal in length or in 2-3 series. A revised examination of E. grandiflorus by O'Kane, Heil, and Nesom indicates "phyllaries in 2–3 subequal [nearly equal] series".

The primary morphological distinction brought out by the revision is shown in the top two photographs on this page. "In alpine tundra and fell fields in southwestern Colorado (San Juan Co.), individuals of Erigeron grandiflorus of extremely reduced size are common and abundant but previously undocumented in that size range –– with stems 2–20 mm tall and involucres 5–7 mm wide producing 17–50 ray florets". 

Various floras agree that the hairs have clear to purple crosswalls (not visible even with a 10x hand lens in the field), but they fail to indicate that the hairs themselves vary from white to dark.

These same problems with the description of the phyllaries and hairs occurs in various floras in their details about Erigeron melanocephalus.

Montane, subalpine, alpine. Meadows, tundra, rocky outcrops, forest openings. Spring, summer.
Colorado Trail at Stony Pass, August 26, 2019.

The Erigeron vetensis shown above has several characteristics in common with other members of its species: Linear and oblanceolate leaves, ciliate margined leaves, persistent basal leaves, caespitose dense habit, dwarf size of just a few inches tall, and solitary heads. But it also has a few unusual characteristics: dark purple phyllaries vs. green; phyllaries almost all of the same length vs. phyllaries in 2-4 rows; its rare white ray color; and its high alpine elevation vs. the normal montane, subalpine elevation.

Such variations are not uncommon within plants of the same species. What is uncommon is that most floras do not note these variations for E. vetensis although when I examined 6 floras, all of the variable characteristics were mentioned in at least one of those floras. For instance, five floras do not put this species in the alpine (Stony Pass is at 12,600 feet), although Flora of Colorado does indicate it grows just into the alpine at 11,800 feet. Four floras indicate that rays are blue, purple, or pink, but two indicate "sometimes white" or "rarely white".

The species was named and described by Per Axel Rydberg in 1905 from a collection made by Rydberg and Vreeland at La Veta Pass, Colorado, in 1900.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Erigeron grandiflorus

Range map for Erigeron vetensis