Arrowleaf balsamroot

Arrowleaf balsamroot can turn an open hillside yellow without being a true sunflower of the genus Helianthus. Its showy heads rise on stems above a clump of large, arrow-shaped leaves. Fine hairs give the leaves a pale gray-green cast, and most of the foliage is concentrated near the ground. Each yellow head contains many small flowers, rather than being one simple blossom. The leaves are particularly useful recognition clues, although related balsamroots and hybrids mean that a yellow head alone is not enough.

This is a perennial with a substantial underground root and crown, adapted to seasonal dryness. In Utah it is associated with open foothills, ridges, and grass-and-shrub country, including sagebrush, oakbrush, and open ponderosa-pine settings. Spring and early summer are often the most conspicuous period, but bloom progresses differently at different elevations. After the display, foliage can dry and become less obvious while the perennial plant persists belowground. A brown hillside later in the season does not erase the value of its spring wildflowers.

Native bees are important to seed production. A Utah-associated field study found that flower heads excluded from insect visits produced virtually no mature seed, while cross-pollination improved seed formation. The display is therefore also a working feeding and reproductive landscape. Watch insects without blocking flowers, keep to established paths through large patches, and leave seedheads and the root system in place.

Large arrow-shaped, softly hairy basal leaves and solitary yellow flower heads above them.

Do not walk through flower patches for a photograph; do not dig roots or collect seedheads.