Compositus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.   plants NOT producing leafy stolons leaves bifid, or trifid, or 2-4 times ternately dissected; NOT entire, NOT [some irregularly toothed or lobed at the apex, other more or less entire] leaf-segments less than 1 mm wide basal leaf segment NOT obviously dilated apically involucre hirsute but NOT densely villose heads discoid or with short inconspicuous ray florets; NOT with well-developed ray florets

 

Erigeron: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. The answers do not match all species of Erigeron found in the Canadian prairies, but they do match this species. plants NOT with well-developed taproot juice watery; NOT milky plants NOT [densely caespitose, seldom more than 5 cm tall, the heads sessile among the leaves] plants NOT [with stout, simple stems, 5-15 (25) cm tall, heads solitary, involucres 2-4 cm wide, bracts ciliate to pectinate or fimbriate, rays blue and achenes densely pubescent, obovate to triangular] leaves alternate or basal; NOT opposite basal leaves NOT [mostly 1-6 cm long, linear to oblanceolate or spatulate, forming a dense rosette] basal leaves NOT cordate, NOT sagittate involucral bracts subequal or more or less imbricate, often green in part, but neither definitely leafy nor with chartaceous base and herbaceous green tip; NOT [either subequal and the outer leafy or more commonly evidently imbricate, with chartaceous base and evident green tip, sometimes chartaceous throughout] (Flora of Alberta) bracts unequal; NOT nearly equal (Budd's Flora) receptacle naked flower heads with florets both tubular and ray; NOT all florets tubular ligulate flowers when present pistillate or neuter; NOT perfect ray florets NOT conspicuous rays white, to pink, purple or blue; NOT yellow, NOT orange stamens united to form a tube around the pistil style branches 0.5 mm long or less, or obsolete; NOT [ordinarily more than 0.5 mm long] style branches lanceolate or broader; NOT [lanceolate or narrower] styles branches acute to obtuse; NOT [acute or acuminate] pappus of capillary bristles, at least in part; NOT [of 1 or 2 short awns, a mere crown or none]