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Chaetopappa ericoides. Synonym: Leucelene ericoides. (Sand Aster, Rose Heath)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
McElmo Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National
Monument, April 27, 2005,
The Shiprock, New Mexico, May 7, 2007,
and Mike and Mona's Five Springs Farm, May 28, 2011.
Chaetopappa ericoides is tiny, beautifully
symmetrical, delicate, and bright. It spreads from roots and
can be abundant on hot, semi-desert, sandy and rocky slopes, sometimes forming large clusters. Most
often, though, it occurs scattered in small clusters, as in the second to last photograph on this page.
 Ray flower petals commonly curl downward in the evening and straighten by mid-morning.
Disk flowers number from 12 to 25 and rays from 8-25 so
the flower appearance can vary (as shown in the photographs on this page).
Leaves range from 6-20
millimeters long and 1-2.5 mm wide and this range, especially of leaf length, produces plants with leaves so minute that they almost overlap as they are nearly pressed against the stems (as in the top photograph at left) and plants with a more open and airy leaf arrangement (as in the second photograph at left).
Leaves and stems can have a variety of hairs: strigose, glandular, and/or rough (hispid). See photographs below.
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 Guy 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 scientific name of the Heath Family.
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Chaetopappa ericoides. Synonym: Leucelene ericoides. (Sand Aster, Rose Heath)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
McElmo Canyon, Canyons of the Ancients National
Monument, April 27, 2005 and Mike and Mona's Five Springs Farm, May 28, 2011.
Mature flowers can look quite different from immature flowers.
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Chaetopappa ericoides. Synonym: Leucelene ericoides. (Sand Aster, Rose Heath)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
Semi-desert. Shrublands, openings. Spring.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, April 21, 2016;
The Shiprock, New Mexico, May 7, 2007; and Ridge above Dolores, August 28, 2021.
Leaves and stems are variously hairy. Commonly leaves have short, bristly hairs on their margins and stems have similar hairs that are appressed.
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Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state
Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Eradicated
Questionable presence