Townsendia leptotes (Slender-leaf Townsendia)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Foothills to alpine. Woodlands, openings. Spring, summer.
Above and left: Lone Mesa State Park, April 24, 2012 and April 26, 2009.

Townsendia leptotes forms mounds several inches high and four-to-ten inches in diameter.  Stemless flower heads sit immediately above the minute leaves and at times totally obscure them. Individual plants are incredibly attractive and are even more so for two reasons beyond their intrinsic beauty: they bloom quite early when much around them is starkly brown (especially on the Mancos Shale the pictured plants are growing on) and many, many plants bloom in the same area at the same time.  Click to see.

Townsendia leptotes is very similar to Townsendia hookeri. Weber and Ackerfield's floras of Colorado separate the two species as follows:

T. hookeri: "Involucre bracts mostly acute, terminated by a tuft of tangled cilia". Primarily found on the Eastern Slope from 5,000 to 9,000 feet blooming March to May.

T. leptotes: "Involucre bracts mostly acute, without a terminal tuft of cilia". Primarily found on the Western Slope from 7,000 to 13,000 feet blooming from May to July.

However, the Flora of North America makes no mention of a "tuft of tangled cilia" and indicates that T. hookeri is found from 2,300 to 5,800 feet blooming March to June. T. leptotes is found from 6,300 to 11,800 feet blooming from June to July. The FNA further separates the species as follows:

T. hookeri: Longer phyllaries narrowly lanceolate, lance-linear, linear, or subulate (l/w=5-9+)

T. leptotes: Longer phyllaries usually ± lanceolate, sometimes lance-ovate, obovate, oblanceolate, or ovate (l/w=2.5-5).

I contacted John Strother, author of the FNA treatment and asked him about the "tuft of tangled cilia". After Strother re-examined 20 collection sheets containing one or more specimens of T. hookeri and 7 sheets of T. leptotes in the University of California Jepson herbarium, Strother noted that "most" phyllary tips of T. hookeri tapered to fine hairs, and "some" T. leptotes specimens "had hairy tips which are similar to, perhaps indistinguishable from tips of phyllaries on specimens identified as T. hookeri". Strother noted that he does not know what "constitutes a tuft of tangled cilia" and he concluded, "I think cilia or hairs on tips of phyllaries of specimens of Townsendias may not be a reliable diagnostic characteristic".

Townsendia leptotes (Slender-leaf Townsendia)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Foothills to alpine. Woodlands, openings. Spring, summer.
Lone Mesa State Park, April 26, 2009 and near Lone Mesa State Park, June 5, 2017.

Beauty in bud and seed.

Townsendia leptotes (Slender-leaf Townsendia)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

The top photograph at left shows Townsendia leptotes in a rare form of only ray flowers.

Experts disagree on the number of rows of phyllaries that T. leptotes has: Weber says 5-7 rows, Welsh 4-7, Intermountain 3-5, and Flora of North America 4-5+.  I have found 4-5 to be the norm in the Lone Mesa population. The phyllaries are often suffused or bordered with the reds of anthocyanin.

In the final photograph the disk pappus hairs (the silky-looking appendages at the top of the tiny ovaries  --  and scattered below Loraine Yeatts' ring) are up to 8 millimeters long and often considerably longer than the pappus hairs of the ray flowers.