Foothills, montane. Woodland openings, fields, roadsides. Summer, fall.
Fish Creek Trail, August 9, 2005.

This is a very common late summer and fall wildflower.  It spreads by underground runners and thus forms large patches.  Its numerous flowers are only about a half inch high and wide with soft white rays and light yellow disks, leaves are soft green, and over-all the plant presents a soft-fuzzy, somewhat unkempt appearance.  

This plant was first collected by John Richardson in the 1820s and named Aster falcatus in Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana in 1834.   The plant has endured a number of name changes and Virgulus was applied to it by Reveal and Keener in 1981.  (In 1837 Rafinesque named the Virgulus genus from the Latin for "little twig".)  Kartesz and the USDA Plant Database now place the plant in the genus Symphyotrichum.

Foothills, montane. Woodland openings, fields, roadsides. Summer, fall.
Fish Creek Trail, August 9, 2005.

Foothills, montane. Woodland openings, fields, roadsides. Summer, fall.
Mesa Verde National Park, September 9, 2007.

Short, stiff hairs are a characteristic of this plant.