Saw this one the other day, relatively high up (alpine) in the coastal mtns - saw it before in the purcell mtns I think. The closest I seem to come is some form of coltsfoot (petasites) - but it just doesn't really fit ???!!! I believe it goes to all white hairs. Ideas? Many thanks
Hmm.. I think you may have been right with the Petasites idea. How about Petasites frigidus var. palmatus? (see this image via eFlora BC).
Thanks for your input. It seems to me it has the leaves of petasites palmatus but overall it looks more like frigidus....thus my ????
I'm not totally convinced it's Petasites frigidus either and I agree that there's something a bit twitchy about it. This plant is blooming way later than Petasites, which blooms in the spring--and although this plant looks a bit past bloom, most populations of Petasites with which I'm familiar have already gone to seed and this one doesn't even look close. The stem looks fuzzy, whereas I believe Petasites is glabrous or nearly so, or at least with an entirely different form of pubescence. The leaves are coarser and smaller than in Petasites. Then again, I'm only familiar with the forms that grow in the Willamette Valley, up toward Mt. Hood and in the northern Oregon Coast Ranges; it could be that there's variation further north with which I'm unfamiliar. It sort of looks like a composite, but it's a bit hard to tell. A cursory look through the white-flowered section of Turner & Gustavson likewise brought me to Petasites. I'm thinking if it is, then it may be var. niveum.
Obviously it may be different high up in mountains, but around here (close to sea level, but otherwise a broadly similar west coast oceanic climate), Petasites flower in February-April; certainly not late August. I'd have thought even high up, they'd still be flowering as soon as they could after snow melt.
Famous lush subalpine flower meadows, such as those on Mount Rainier peak in August. Some high places still have snow. I've seen Petasites frigidus nivalis blooming late, on edge of melting snow on Mt Baker before (as it happens I was there again recently but the peak was obscured by mist and I did not get out and walk around).
More information I should have provided on this woolly one: The photo was of an example from JUNE 13 2006 in the Purcell Mtns, just east of Revelstoke BC, at an elevation of something like 6000 ft. More recently, (August 26/07) I saw another of the exact same plant - a bit woollier- moreso , almost white at Brandywine Meadows, elevation of approx 5000ft, in the coastal mtns just south of Whistler BC. I should add the snow has been late leaving that area. So I guess the timing makes petasites possible. I'm a hiker and I like to identify flowers, but I'm no botannical expert. Thanks to all your input, I'm thinking that it is my reading of my reference work ("Plants of Coastal BC, Pojar& MacKinnon) that confused me: It has petasites palmatus and it has petasites frigidus var. nivalis and they appear to be quite separate. Now, with all this input, I've discovered that there is a petasites frigidus var palmatus as Daniel M has noted earlier and below. Indeed a sort of composite of what my book shows. With this input I've found a BC fauna web site that confirmed that for me. Thx very much everyone. T.
