Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
McElmo Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 27, 2005.

Chaetopappa ericoides is beautifully symmetrical, delicate, and bright.  It spreads from deep roots and can be abundant on hot, semi-desert, rocky slopes, sometimes forming large clusters.  Most often, though, it is scattered in small clusters.  Petal tips commonly roll over after a rain.  Disk flowers number from 12 to 25 and rays from 8-25 so the flower appearance can vary (as shown in the difference between the top two photos and the bottom one).  Leaves range from 6-20 millimeters long and 1-2.5 mm wide with very short stiff hairs projecting from the edges and flattened hairs on the surface.  (See third photograph.)  The plant is often glandular (sticky) and grains of sand stick to the plant.

Augustin de Candolle named this genus (in the early 1800s).  This species was first named Inula ericoides by Torrey in 1827 from a specimen collected by Edwin James "on the Canadian [River]" on the Long Expedition of 1819-1820.  (Intermountain Flora quotation.)  The species has since undergone more than a dozen name changes including Leucelene ericoides by  Edward Greene in 1896 and Chaetopappa ericoides by G. L. Nesom in 1988. 

"Chaetopappa" is Greek for "bristly pappus".  "Ericoides", also Greek, means "similar ("oides") to Heath ("eric")", i.e., the plant's leaves are similar to those of some Heaths.  Ericaceae is the name of the Heath Family.  

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
McElmo Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 27, 2005.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
The Shiprock, New Mexico, May 7, 2007.

Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
McElmo Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 27, 2007.