Montana Field Guide

Few-flowered Butterweed is a glabrous, perennial herb with stems that are 15-40 cm high and arising from a simple or branched rootcrown with fibrous roots. The basal leaves are 3-10 cm long and have long petioles and thick, spade-shaped blades with coarsely toothed margins. The alternate stem leaves, some with a pair of basal lobes, become smaller and sessile upward. Usually, 2-6 erect flower heads are borne in a crowded, terminal inflorescence. Each flower head has a single series of reddish-purple, narrow, pointed involucral bracts that are 6-8 mm long. Disk flowers are orange to reddish. Rays are inconspicuous or lacking. The achene has a pappus at its summit.

Flowering in June.

Senecio is a large genus, and a technical manual should be consulted for positive identification. Senecio debilis and S. indecorus have more deeply lobed lower leaves and are generally found at lower elevations.

Moist meadows and cliffs in the montane zone.

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus bifarius, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus frigidus, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus sylvicola, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus insularis, Bombus suckleyi, Bombus flavidus, and Bombus kirbiellus (Schmitt 1980, Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Wilson et al. 2010, Pyke et al. 2012, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).