Erigerons, commonly called "Daisies" or "Fleabanes", are a large and complex genus.  This web site shows 24 of the 48 species in the Four Corners area;  there are 130 species in North America and 200 world-wide.

     Erigerons have yellow disk flowers and numerous narrow ray flowers that are white, pink, or purple (but not yellow).  They grow from the semi-desert to the subalpine regions and although a few are uncommon, most are very common.

      In 1753 Linnaeus gave the genus its name from the Greek "eri" ("early") + "geron" ("old man", as in "geriatrics", the study of old age processes and problems).  Perhaps the Greek name refers to characteristics of some now unknown plant or perhaps it refers to the early flowering of many species and to the bristly pappus of the developing seed, or perhaps to the puffy, grizzled appearance of the mature seed head.

Montane to alpine.  Meadows, openings.  Summer.
Cinnamon Pass, August 1, 2007 and Colorado Trail near Stony Pass, July 21, 2011.

This lovely Daisy is, in the words of Intermountain Flora, "a common and highly variable ... species" but quite distinct from other Erigerons, especially because of its deeply divided basal leaves.  E. compositus is primarily apomictic, i.e., it reproduces not by pollination of ovules but by parthenogenesis (Greek for "virgin birth").  Ovules develop into new life without being fertilized.  This accounts for the uniformity of characteristics in local populations.  Distant populations do differ, however, especially in pubescence and ray length. 

Rayless forms are common according to Colorado plant authority, William Weber.  Both forms grow from two to ten inches tall; both plants in the photographs at left are six inches tall. 

E. compositus enjoys rocky openings and can be found through most higher elevations, but in the Four Corners area (only in Colorado and Utah) it is chiefly found from high montane to alpine.  As is true for almost all of the blue Erigerons, the color of E. compositus varies from white to blue to pink. 

Frederick Pursh named this species in 1814 from a specimen collected by Meriwether Lewis in 1806 near Lewiston, Idaho.

Montane to alpine.  Meadows, openings.  Summer.
Cinnamon Pass, August 1, 2007.

Montane to alpine.  Meadows, openings.  Summer.
Cinnamon Pass, August 1, 2007.