Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Indian blanket flower

INDIAN BLANKET FLOWER

File Size: 97 KB

Gaillardia pulchella Foug.

Gove County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 4-24 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Rose-ring gaillardia, showy gaillardia.

Stems:

Erect, simple or freely branched from near base, rough hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, sessile, often clasping, lanceolate or oblong in outline, to 3 inches long and 1 1/4 inches wide, coarsely hairy; margins entire, weakly toothed, or wavy-cleft.

Inflorescences:

Heads, 1 to few, 1-3 inches wide, long-stalked, terminal.

Flowers:

Bracts lanceolate, green; ray florets 10-20, red or purplish at bases, yellow near 3-lobed tips, 1/2 to 1 inch long, to 1/4 inch wide; disk florets reddish brown, interspersed with numerous stiff bristles.

Fruits:

Achenes, short, hairy, tipped with 6-10 long-pointed, awned scales, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Dry, open waste ground, disturbed sites, fields, and roadsides, most abundant on sandy soils.

Distribution:

West 3/4 of Kansas.

Uses:

The Kiowa Indians believed the flowers brought good luck.

Comments:

Indian blanket flower is the state wildflower of Oklahoma.

Indian blanket flower inflorescences