I found the attached plants on June 11 in Kalamalka Provincial Park in a rocky sunny area on the lakeshore. The plant is certainly a member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) but I do not know anything else about it. Can somebody identify this plant? Robert.
This would be Heterotheca villosa according to the nomenclature in the "Illustrated Flora of British Columbia". I actually found lots of plants which I suppose to be H. villosa in Osooyos on June 9 but they were usually higher and much more branched. The image below is from the parking lot at Osoyoos Desert Centre (June 9, 2006). Nevertheless I suppose that the image from Kalamalka Provincial Park probably shows the same plant. Thank you very much Robert.
Hi Harry, the only plant that is listed under Haplopappus and Tonestus in the "Illustrated Flora of British Columbia" which looks similar to the flowers from Kalamalka Provincial Park (which is situated in a rather low area) is Tonestus lyallii (Lyall's goldenweed). But the flora says that this is a subalpine or alpine species and that flower heads are solitary. Most of my flowers were branched near the top of their stems, however, and some of them even had several recognizable flower heads even though only a single one per stem was in bloom. So I doubt that I found Lyall's goldenweed. Or which species do you suggest? Thanks, Robert.
Hi Robert Flogaus-Faust, I guess T. lyalli was the only species that got that far north according to my flora too, but it certainly looks similar to a plant here that I thought was Haplopappus. My original identification might have been in error as this is certainly not alpine or subalpine here. I'll have to make a trip out to where it grows and see if it still comes out to that. The picture you posted only shows single heads, but if there were multiple heads then I think that pretty much rules that out, also it would have to be an early bloom as Tonestus derives from blooming July to September. The plant I see is low, tufted (caespitose) and the flower size resembles that of a midsize Erigeron. about 1-2 cm. Harry
flower heads Hi Harry, there were multiple flower heads per stem even though the additional ones were on side branches, (almost) never clustered. I can usually see two flower heads per stem but there may be more. The flower heads appeared to be rather small but 1 - 2 cm is certainly too small. The plants were very low, certainly less than 20 cm high, probably about 10 - 15 cm (but I did not measure that). I wonder whether this may be due to the rather bare rock they were growing on. I enlarged part of my photograph so you can see two stems with side branches. One of them (on the right) has got the bud of a flower head on a side branch. The additional flower head on the left side is less easily seen but there is also at least one more bud left below the left flower head. Robert.
