cut-leaf fleabane

Erigeron compositus is a perennial herb rarely more than 25 cm (10 in) tall, with a thick growth of basal leaves, the tips of which are divided. The plant produces a taproot and spreads by means of horizontal underground rhizomes. The leaves are often densely hairy but can range to fully glabrous. There is generally only one flower head per stem, each head with 20–60 white, pink or blue ray florets; these are sometimes small and easily mistaken for disc florets. Genuine disc florets are yellow and in the center of the head. The flower stem and bract is covered with hairs, often glandular.

Erigeron compositus has been found in the Russian Far East (Wrangel Island and Chukotka), Alaska, Greenland, much of Canada (all three Arctic territories plus British Columbia, all three Prairie Provinces, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia), and the Western United States (from the Pacific Coast as far east as the Dakotas, Colorado, and New Mexico).