FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Erigeron humilis, Arctic Alpine Fleabane, Snaekobbi

Erigeron humilis; The Arctic alpine fleabane aka dwarf fleabane is the least common of the regular fleabanes on Iceland. It is restricted to high altitudes and mountains of the interior. It can best be identified by the dark flowerheads. These are beset with purple hairs with whitish tips. On the stem the the hairs have a purple base too but the white tops are longer and lighter. The other fleabanes have all-white hairs. Another characteristic is the more truncate base of the flower. It shares this feature with the much lighter (hairy) Arctic Fleabane but differs from the more rounded base of the flowerhead of the Oneflower Fleabane.
It is a member of the Asteraceae family (= Compositae ), the daisy family. The Icelandic name of this species is Snaekobbi.