See more Packera.

Click to see how Packera is distinguished from Senecio.

Subalpine, alpine.  Wetlands, meadows, rocks, tundra. Summer.
Above: Wetlands along Colorado Trail near Bolam Pass, July 27, 2017; Wetlands near Taylor Mesa Road, July 24, 2015; Wetlands near Little Bear Trail, June 26, 2015; and Colorado Trail, Kennebec Pass, July 19, 2015.
Left: Cinnamon Pass, August 1, 2007.
Below: Black Bear Pass Road, July 20, 2008.

Packera dimorphophylla is found in small, scattered patches in drier open meadows and on tundra and it can be found in masses in wetlands, as shown in photographs above.

Packera dimorphophylla disk flower buds are often a very attractive orange, soon changing to golden yellow.  Ray flowers, in the manner typical of a number of Asteraceae, are at first quite minute, gradually widening and lengthening and unfolding bright yellow.  The few stem leaves are narrowly or broadly triangular, 1-3 inches long, toothed, and clasping,  

contrasting with the circular-to-spatulate-shaped basal leaves that have a petiole. 

Plants can grow to twenty inches tall but on alpine meadows, tundra, and scree they are large at seven inches.  Packera dimorphophylla is found in the mountains of Colorado, Utah, and in two northern counties of New Mexico.  It is not found in Arizona.

Edward Greene named this plant Senecio dimorphophyllus in 1900 from a specimen collected by Charles Baker on Pagosa Peak in Colorado.  William Weber and Askell Löve renamed it Packera dimorphophylla in 1981. John Packer was a Canadian botanist. (More biographical information about Packer.)  "Dimorphophylla" is Greek for "two forms of leaves".

Subalpine, alpine.  Wetlands, meadows, rocks, tundra. Summer.
Eureka Gulch, July 18, 2009, Cinnamon Pass; August 1, 2007; Black Bear Pass Road, July 20, 2008; and Bolam Lake, August 15, 2014.

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 Packera dimorphophylla