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General:
Low prostrate shrub from a long woody stem-base; stems trailing, freely branching and rooting, mat-forming, often forming large colonies.
Leaves:
Alternate, evergreen, the leaf blades elliptic to oblong-egg-shaped, 1-4 cm long, broadest above the middle, blunt to rounded at the tip, wedge-shaped at the stalked base, the margins coarsely round-toothed and often rolled under; wrinkled, dark green and smooth above, densely white woolly-hairy below; dead leaves withering but the remains persisting.
Flowers:
Usually solitary, nodding on leafless, woolly-hairy, 5- to 25-cm tall stalks; corollas yellow, never fully expanding, the petals 8 to 10, elliptic to egg-shaped, ascending, 8-12 mm long; calyces usually densely covered with black, gland-tipped hairs, sometimes long-silky-hairy, the 8 to 10 lobes broadly egg-shaped, 4-8 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens numerous, the filaments hairy toward the base.
Fruits:
Numerous achenes, each tipped by the persistent, golden-yellow, silky-feathery style, which twists around others when immature and in damp weather; the whole later opens to a fluffy mass.
Notes:
Three varieties occur in BC:
1. Calyces densely silky-hairy......................... var. eglandulosa Pors.
1. Calyces densely stalked-glandular.
2. Leaves smooth and dark green above...................... var. drummondii
2. Leaves finely woolly-hairy and white above........................ var. tomentosa (Farr) Williams
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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