Single Record

Comments: In the Watershed Erigeron vagus, usually found on scree, is common only locally. There are five locations: Stony Pass in San Juan Co; near Summit Peak in Archuleta Co; Whiskey Pass in Costilla Co; the pass near Purgatoire Peak in Costilla Co (14.5 miles SW of San Luis); and Mt. Lindsey in the North Cristos wilderness area (Hogan & Elliot 2022). The most observations have come from Stony pass, where in 2017 Jennifer Ackerfield found the species "Common in rocky alpine tundra and on open scree slopes" (SEINet catalog # 190760). The USA distribution of E. vagus is very scattered, occurring only in parts of eastern Oregon, western California, southern Utah, and the central mountains of Colorado. So the Watershed specimens fall at the southeastern edge. It is not recorded from New Mexico or farther down the Rio Grande drainage. Note that it may be confused with Erigeron compositus, whose leaf tips, however, are less rounded, and whose leaf lobes range from 1 to 4 (whereas the leaf lobes of E. vagus are much more consistently 3 in number).