Heterotheca villosa var. scabra (A. Eastwood) Semple is the southwestern less-hairy, more glandular race of the species.  The upper stem leaves are usually narrowly deltoid-lanceolate. Chrysopsis viscida A. Gray ssp. cinerascens S.F. Blake, Heterotheca horrida (Rydb.) Harms ssp. cinerascens (S.F. Blake) Semple, and Heterotheca polothrix Nesom are synonyms.  The variety hybridizes with var. nana and var. minor in areas where the ranges overlap.  It often grows in the same habitats as the rare H. jonesii in southern Utah.

Heterotheca villosa var scabra Fig 47 Semple 1996