Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Bicknell's frostweed

BICKNELL'S FROSTWEED

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Crocanthemum bicknellii (Fernald ) Janchen

[=Helianthemum bicknellii Fernald]

McPherson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-28 inches

Family: Cistaceae - Rockrose Family

Flowering Period: June, July

Also Called:

Plains frostweed.

Stems:

Plants pubescent. Stems of 1 form; basal stems absent; flowering stems produced in spring, erect, not overwintering.

Leaves:

Alternate; petioles 1-4; blade elliptic to oblanceolate, .8 to 1.6 inch long, 1/6 to 2/5 inch wide, tip obtuse to rounded, lower surface densely stellate-tomentose, upper surface stellate-pubescent.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, terminal

Flowers:

Chasmogamous and cleistogamous: pedicels 1/8 to 1/3 inch, (less than 1/25 inch in cleistogamous flowers); outer sepals linear to lanceolate, inner sepals ovate to elliptic; petals 5 (0 in cleistogamous flowers), yellow, obovate, 1/3 to 1/2 inch, longer than sepals; stamens 18-38 (3-5 in cleistogamous flowers); style 1; stigma 1, capitate.

Fruits:

Capsules angular-ovoid, 1/8 to 1/5 inch (1/16 to 1/8 inch in cleistogamous flowers), enclosed entirely by persistent calyx; seeds reddish brown, 12-30 (1-3 in cleistogamous flowers), 1/25 to 1/16 inch.

Habitat:

Dry, sandy, tallgrass prairies and oak-hickory woodlands, glades

Distribution:

East 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Crocanthemum, saffron and flower, alluding to the petal color and bicknellii, for Eugene Pintard Bicknell, Amercian botanist.

Bicknell's frostweed