VELVET BUTTERFLY WEED
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| File Size: 60 KB |
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Gaura parviflora Dougl.
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| Riley County, Kansas |
| Annual or winter annual |
| Height: 1-9 feet |
| Family: Onagraceae - Evening Primrose Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July, August |
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| Also Called: | | Velvety gaura, small-flowered gaura. | | Stems: | | Erect, usually solitary, unbranched below inflorescence, densely glandular-hairy with few silky spreading hairs. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, simple, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, 1 to 5 inches long, .25 to 1.75 inch wide, soft-pubescent; margins wavy; tips tapering to points; lower stem leaves usually absent at flowering. | | Inflorescences: | | Spikes, elongate, 2 to 20 inches long, densely flowered, terminal; bracts lanceolate to linear, to 1/4 inch long, long spreading hairy. | | Flowers: | | Sepals 4, lance-oblong, glabrous or minutely pubescent, bent abruptly downward; petals 4, pink to rose, less than 1/8 inch long; stamens 8, anthers yellow or reddish; stigma with 4 short lobes. | | Fruits: | | Capsules, nutlike, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, mostly glabrous; seeds 3-4, rust-colored. | | Habitat: | | Dry rocky hillsides, pastures, old fields, open woodlands, waste areas, and roadsides. | | Distribution: | | Nearly throughout Kansas. | | Uses: | | Native Americans used a liquid made from the roots of velvety gaura to treat snakebites, burns, and inflammations. They sometimes stewed the roots with meat. |
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| Velvety gaura leaves |  | | 53 KB | | Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas |
| | Velvety gaura |  | | 115 KB | | Riley County, Kansas |
| | Velvety gaura inflorescence |  | | 74 KB | | Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas |
| | Velvety gaura fruit |  | | 28 KB | | Riley County, Kansas |
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