Spinulosus:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.    leaves mostly pinnatifid, the lower ones with the segments toothed or lobed; NOT [leaves obscurely toothed or entire] flowers with both tubular and ray florets; NOT [flowers having only tubular florets]

 

Haplopappus: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. plants with a taproot; NOT [plants with fibrous roots] juice watery; NOT milky leaves alternate or basal; NOT opposite leaves mostly basal, with stem leaves reduced; NOT [stems leafy almost to inflorescence] leaves often somewhat spinescent heads usually solitary at ends of branches; NOT [heads small and numerous, in terminal or axillary clusters] involucral bracts in 2 or more series; NOT [involucral bracts usually one series] involucral bracts well-imbricated; NOT [involucral bracts not or scarcely imbricated] receptacle naked flower heads with florets both tubular and ray ray florets when present pistillate or neuter; not perfect ray florets yellow; NOT [ray florets usually blue, purple, pink, or white] stamens united to form a tube around the pistil pappus composed of hairs; NOT [pappus, when present, composed of scales, bristles, firm awns, chaff, or a crown] pappus single, bristles sometimes unequal but not distinctly divided into an inner and outer series of two lengths; NOT [pappus double, outer series composed of scales or small bristles, inconspicuous, distinctly shorter than the inner]