Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WILLOW BACCHARIS

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Baccharis salicina T. & G.

Russell County, Kansas

Perennial shrub

Height: 3-9 feet

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August

Stems:

Branches numerous, ascending, arising from single base, ridged, angled, glabrous.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, mostly sessile, oblong-lanceolate, 1.25 to 2.5 inches long, 1/5 to 3/5 inch wide, broader toward tips, thick, stiff, pale grayish green; margins with 2-4 coarse teeth, forward-projecting, widely spaced; tips blunt; larger leaves conspicuously 3-nerved.

Inflorescences:

Pyramid-like clusters, terminal at ends of branches, heads 1-7.

Flowers:

Male and female flowers on separate plants; pistillate heads bell-shaped, green, hairy; bracts in several series, lanceolate to linear, spreading at maturity; margins rough; tips blunt or pointed, reddish brown; ray florets absent; disk florets 25-30, corollas slender, almost hidden by long, white, hair-like bristles; staminate heads hemispheric, greenish; bracts similar; ray florets absent; disk florets with funnel-shaped corollas, inconspicuous, white to yellowish, anthers protruding, short bristles barely rise above involucral bracts.

Fruits:

Achenes, tiny, glabrous, 8-10 ribbed, tipped with numerous white, hair-like bristles in 2 series, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Open sandy flood plains, edges of ponds, and lakeshores.

Distribution:

Principally southwest 1/4 of Kansas.

Uses:

Redwing blackbirds often build nests in willow baccharis.

Comments:

Cattle consume the young leaves and twigs.

Willow baccharis pistillate inflorescence