Annuals, mostly 10-40(-50) cm; taprooted. Stems erect, sparsely hispido-pilose (hairs spreading, straight, 0.6-2) mm), densely stipitate-glandular. Leaves basal (persistent) and cauline; basal and proximal cauline blades obovate-spatulate, 50-100(-150) × 4-25 mm, cauline gradually reduced (lobing distally), margins pinnatifid or bipinnatifid with (1-)2-4 pairs of rounded to acute lobes, faces sparsely hispido-pilose, stipitate-glandular. Heads 1-5 (peduncles long, ebracteate). Involucres 3-4 × 6-10 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series (sometimes basally connate, broad, thin) sparsely hispido-pilose, stipitate glandular. Ray florets 85-110; corollas white, drying dark blue, 6-9 mm, laminae not coiling or reflexing. Disc corollas 1.8-2.9 mm. Cypselae 1.2-1.4 mm, 2-nerved, faces sparsely strigose; pappi: outer of scales (sometimes connate, forming crowns), inner of 11-12 bristles. Flowering (Jan-)Feb-May(-Oct). Stream banks, sandy lake shores, dry washes, desert or riparian scrub, sometime with creosote bush; 300-1200 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev.; Mexico (Sonora). Erigeron lobatus is characterized by persistent basal and proximal cauline leaves with rounded to acute lobes, vestiture of stipitate glands and sparse, spreading, hispido-pilose hairs, heads on relatively long, ebracteate peduncles, and broad, thin phyllaries. Erigeron divergens often is similar; its glandularity is not stipitate and its nonglandular hairs are shorter and denser.

Plant: Annual generally 15-50 cm, from slender taproot, branched at base, glandular-puberulent Leaves: alternate; basal 5-10 cm, ± obovate, pinnately 4-8-lobed; cauline gradually reduced upwards INFLORESCENCE: primary inflorescence a head, each resembling a flower; heads radiate, 6-10 mm diam; involucre hemispheric; phyllaries glandular-puberulent; receptacle flat to steeply conic, naked, smooth to shallowly pitted Flowers: Ray flowers 85-110; corollas 6-8 mm, drying blue; Disk flowers many; corollas generally narrowly funnel-shaped, yellow; style tips 0.1-0.8 mm, ± triangular Fruit: Fruit: achenes, 0.5-3 mm, generally ± oblong, compressed to ± cylindric, generally 2-ribbed, generally sparsely hairy; pappus bristles 11-12 Misc: Sandy soil, creosote-bush scrub; ± 550 m; Mar-Apr References: ASU specimens