Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Yellow hymenopappus

YELLOW HYMENOPAPPUS

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Hymenopappus flavescens A. Gray

Morton County, Kansas

Biennial

Height: 8-36 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August

Also Called:

Yellow plainsman, yellow woolly-white, collegeflower.

Stems:

Erect, branched in upper 1/3, ribbed, arising singly from taproot.

Leaves:

Alternate, stalked; basal rosette leaves twice pinnately-divided, 2.4 to 6 inches long, 1/2 to 3 inches wide; ultimate segments linear, to 4/5 inch long, to 1/4 inch wide, mostly smooth above, woolly below; stem leaves numerous, progressively reduced above.

Inflorescences:

Cyme, congested, terminal; flowering stalks .4 to 2.4 inch long; heads 30-100, disk-like.

Flowers:

Involcural bracts 6-14, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long; ray florets absent; disk florets 30-70, bright yellow; corolla 1/10 to 1/8 inch long, tube sparsely to densely glandular, expanded above into bell-shaped throat.

Fruits:

Achenes, 4-angled, about 1/6 inch long, angles pubescent, tipped with 18-20 translucent scales, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Dry prairies, plains, pastures, and roadsides; sandy soils.

Distribution:

Southwest 1/5 of Kansas.

Comments:

See also old plainsman Hymenopappus scabiosaeus .

Yellow hymenopappus