Early in the spring this flower with a mat-forming basal rosette of leaves sends up usually a single 1–6-inch tall, unbranched flower stem  with stiff, flat-lying, upward-pointing hairs, and usually greenish (not reddish) toward the base. As the season progresses, the plant sends out leafy runners with plantlets that can cover broad areas. A terminal plantlet on the runner is usually present. Note the nodding, pink-tinged bud and flower head with numerous white, petal-like rays.

FLOWER: May–September. Each stem has a single, nodding, pink-tinged bud that opens into a 1-inch wide (25 mm) flower head with 40–125 white, petal-like rays, often with a lavender tint or stripe on the backside, and a yellow central disk; phyllaries in 2 rows, covered with loose to flat-lying hairs.

LEAVES: Dense basal rosette with blades 3/4–2-inches long (2–5 cm), 1/8–3/8-inch wide (3–9 mm), elliptic to lance-shaped, surfaces covered with flat-lying hairs. Up the lower half of the flower stem, the leaves abruptly (not gradually) become much smaller , often with one small leaf part way up the stem, margins entire to toothed. Note the leaves have narrow, stem-like bases that do not clasp the stem.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils of grasslands, roadsides, meadows, forest openings; pinyon–juniper foothills, ponderosa-oak, spruce-fir woodlands to subalpine meadows.

ELEVATION: 5,000–11,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, MI, MT, NE, NV, NM, OK, SD, TX, UT, WY; Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Running Fleabane, E. tracyi, widespread in much the same habitat, also produces runners but usually without terminal plantlets, and stems and basal leaves  have a dense covering of spreading hairs. The nearly identical Plains Fleabane, E. modestus, in southern and eastern NM, has early-season stems reddish toward the base, reddish, drooping buds, and often midstripes on the back of the rays, flower heads 1/2–3/4-inch wide, and often multiple stems from a woody root crown.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide (except Chaves, Curry, Lea, Luna) in mid- to high-elevations habitats.