Arnica cordifolia var. cordifolia
Heartleaf Arnica

Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)

Photo taken at Leavenworth Ski Hill, dry wooded hillside, flowering in May

Flowers:

heads radiate, 1-5 heads; yellow ray and disk flowers; ray flowers 10-15, ligules less than 3 cm; corolla of disk flowers soft-hairy, glandular

Seed:

6-10 mm, short forked-hairy or glandular; pappus short barbed, whitish

Leaves:

simple, opposite; petioled pairs becoming reduced upwards; blades 3-11 cm, strongly heart shaped, generally shallowly toothed

Plant:

perennial; stems 1 to few, unbranched, 10-50 cm. Traditionally the plant was mashed and applied externally to swellings, cuts and bruises by the Thompson.

Habitat:

Common in woods from foothills to mid-mountain

Distribution of species:

Cordilleran species, most mountain ranges covering North America

Distribution of genus:

more or less 27 species: North America and Eurasia