Clusters with up to 20 showy, 2-inch wide flowers heads crown 1–2 1/2-foot tall branching stems that have scattered long hairs to no hairs. The species name speciosus means “showy” in Latin. Note the leaves are evenly-sized up the stem to the flower heads and have hairless surfaces but often hairy edges, and the phyllaries are almost hairless.

FLOWERS: July–October. Flower heads with 75–150 petal-like ray flowers, blue to lavender, rarely white, crowded around a yellow disk  3/8–3/4-inch (10–20 mm) wide. Ray florets are 3/8–3/4-inch (9–18 mm) long, 1 mm wide; phyllaries (underneath the head) are glandular but mostly hairless.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Basal leaves spoon-shaped, to 3-inches (80 mm) long, faces smooth, usually withered by blooming. Stem leaves alternate, blades oval to lance-shaped with pointed tips, much the same size up the stem to just below the flower heads, blades often triple-nerved, bases clasp the stem, surfaces hairless, margins entire, often lined with ciliate hairs.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loamy soils, open woods; ponderosa-Douglas fir, spruce-aspen forests.

ELEVATION: 6,000–10,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The look-alike Three-nerve Fleabane, E. subtrinervis, has hairy-fuzzy phyllaries, and leaf surfaces covered with stiff hairs.The showy Broad-leaf Fleabane, E. vreelandii, in much the same habitat and range, has long glandular hairs on the stems and phyllaries.

NM COUNTIES: Western 2/3 of NM in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Harding, Lincoln, Los Alamos, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.