Umbellatum: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.   rootstock short, stout, without offshoots; NOT [long, slender, with offshoots] leaves mostly borne on the stem; leaves NOT essentially basal stems leafy about the middle, the leaves often not much reduced above; NOT [larger leaves arising from the lower third of the stem and markedly reduced above the middle] stem and leaves NOT densely hirsute, both glabrous or the stem sparsely pubescent with white appressed hairs, or the leaves with short, conical projections along the margin; NOT [stem and leaves hispid or densely hirsute with long spreading hairs] flowers yellow; NOT orange, NOT white, NOT cream bracts of involucre imbricate (overlapping like shingles); bracts NOT almost in a single row

 

Hieracium: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.  Not all the answers are true for all members of Hieracium found in the prairies, but they all are true for umbellatum. perennials with fibrous roots; NOT annuals, NOT taprooted perennials juice milky; NOT watery stem NOT diffusely branched plants with at least some cauline leaves; plants NOT scapose, leaves NOT all basal stems leafy throughout or at least to midway up the stem; stems NOT leafy at the base only leaves broader and leaf-like; leaves NOT [few, cauline, mostly narrowly linear or reduced to scales] leaf margins entire or merely toothed; leaves NOT divided, NOT lobed lower stem and leaves generally long-hairy; NOT [generally glabrous, sometimes puberulent, tomentose or hispid] heads few to many; NOT solitary heads born erect; NOT usually nodding involucre more than 2 series; NOT uniseriate, NOT biseriate involucre usually of unequal bracts; NOT [of one series of equal bracts] bracts of involucre narrow and green; NOT [broad and colored] flowers all ligulate flowers all perfect flowers yellow stamens united to form a tube around the pistil achenes NOT flattened; NOT [at least twice as wide as thick] pappus well developed, at least in part of capillary bristles; achene NOT merely covered with scales pappus simple, consisting of bristles only; pappus NOT [double, the outer ring consisting of 5 small scale-like appendages, the inner ring bristles] pappus bristles simple; NOT plumose pappus brownish or tawny; NOT white