Kingdom Plantae Genus Nothocalais Higher classification Nothocalais | Order Asterales Scientific name Nothocalais alpestris Rank Species | |
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Similar Nothocalais, Daisy family, Potentilla flabellifolia, Erigeron peregrinus, Agoseris | ||
Nothocalais alpestris is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name alpine lake false dandelion. It is native to the Cascade Range and nearby ranges in the western United States, where it grows in subalpine forest and meadow habitat. It is a perennial herb growing from a thick caudex and reaching about 25 centimeters tall. The leaves are located around the base of the stem and have toothed, wavy, or smooth edges, and sometimes a thin coat of small hairs. They measure up to 20 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a flower head covered with purple-dotted green phyllaries and containing many yellow ray florets and no disc florets. The fruit from each floret is a cylindrical achene up to a centimeter long, not considering the large pappus of up to 50 hairlike white bristles which may be an additional centimeter in length.