In late summer dozens of colorful flower heads cover the branches of this erect, 2–4 foot tall bushy plant, usually with a single stem with numerous upper branches. Ray flower color varies from bright purple to occasionally whitish. Note the mid-stem leaves do not clasp the stem. Common in the wind-blown sandy soils of the desert.

FLOWERS: August (April)–November. Composite with 15–25 purple to pink, rarely white, ray flowers, 1/4–1/2 inch long (5–12 mm); orange-yellow disk flowers; phyllaries (below flower) with tips erect to spreading or curled, green with the lower 3/4 white or tan, often with narrow green stripe down the center, generally not covered with sticky glands.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blade stemless (sessile), linear to lance-shaped, mid-stem leaves 3/8–4 inches long (1 to 10 cm) by 1/16–1/4-inch wide (1.5–6 mm) and do not clasp the stem; margins with small teeth tipped with spines.

HABITAT: Windblown sand, gravelly soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; cottonwood bosques, desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,400–9,000 feet.

RANGE: Western U. S.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The look-alike Sticky Aster, D. bigelovii, tends to have deeper purple ray flowers, grow at higher elevations (4,800–12,000 feet), have sticky-glandular phyllaries that are green at least 3/4 the length, and clasping mid-stem leaves. Another mid- to high- elevation species in western NM, Shaggy-cup Tansyaster, D. asteroides, has mid-stem leaves 1/4–3/4-inch wide (6–20 mm), and ray flowers 3/8–3/4-inch long (10–20 mm).

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide in low- to mid-elevation arid habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Lea, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.