Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

PLAINS HYMENOXYS

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Tetraneuris scaposa (DC. ) Greene

[=Hymenoxys scaposa (DC. ) Parker]

Gove County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 4-12 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, September

Also Called:

Plains yellow daisy, four-nerve daisy.

Stems:

Stems not obvious.

Leaves:

Basal, simple, sessile or short-stalked, closely overlapping, nearly erect, linear to linear-lanceolate, 1 to 4 inches long, less than 1/4 inch wide, glabrous or sparsely hairy; margins entire; axils densely woolly.

Inflorescences:

Heads, solitary, terminal, on rigidly upright flowering stalks, about 1.5 inches wide; bracts in 2-3 series, to 1/4 inch long, thin, silky.

Flowers:

Ray florets 8-21, to 4/5 inch long, yellow, prominently 4-nerved; tips 3-lobed; disk florets numerous, corollas yellow.

Fruits:

Achenes, less than 1/8 inch long, dark, tipped with 5-8 short scales, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Dry, open, rocky or sandy, limestone sites.

Distribution:

West 1/2 of Kansas.

Comments:

Blooms in May and June and sometimes again in September. After maturity, the ray flowers droop, turn whitish, and become paper-like. Plains hymenoxys can form large mats with abundant heads.

Plains hymenoxys inflorescence