Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Pyrrocoma apargioides is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name alpineflames. It is native to the western United States from the Sierra Nevada of California east to Utah, where it grows in the forests and meadows of high mountains. It is a perennial herb growing from a taproot and producing one or more stems to 30 centimeters in length. The stems are decumbent or upright, reddish, and hairless to slightly woolly. Most of the leaves are located around the base. They are thick and leathery, lance-shaped with large sawteeth along the edges, and measure up to 10 centimeters long. The inflorescence is usually a single flower head lined with centimeter-long phyllaries which are reddish to green with red edges. The head has a center of yellow disc florets and a fringe of ray florets which are yellow, often splashed with red along the undersides, measuring up to 1. 6 centimeters in length. The fruit is an achene which may be well over a centimeter in length including its pappus.

Plant type

Perennial herb

Size

7 in Tall

Calscape icon
Color

Red

Sun

Full Sun, Partial Shade

Site type

Rocky slopes, meadows, open areas

Plant communities

Alpine Fell-Fields, Lodgepole Forest, Subalpine Forest

Bees
Butterflies

Pollinators supported

0 confirmed and 19 likely

  • Likely

  • Confirmed

Milbert's Tortoiseshell

Aglais milberti

Arrowhead Arctic Blue

Agriades podarce

Anthidium tenuiflorae

White-Shouldered Bumble Bee

Bombus appositus