Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Yellow bear's-foot

YELLOW BEAR'S-FOOT

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Smallanthus uvedalia (L. ) Mack. ex Small

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 3-10 feet

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Erect or ascending, often branched, with minute longitudinal lines, moderately to densely pubescent above, nearly glabrous below.

Leaves:

Cauline, opposite; petiole 1.2 to 5 inches, usually winged; blades triangular to ovate or broadly ovate, 4 to 22 inches long, larger blades usually palmately 3-5 lobed, margins coarsely and irregularly toothed, surfaces minutely hairy, abaxially gland-dotted.

Inflorescences:

Heads solitary or 2-5 in open, irregular clusters at branch tips, subtended by leaf-like bracts tapering to points. Involucres hemispheric, .4 to .8 inch tall, .3 to .6 inch across. Phyllaries green, ovate to lanceolate, leaf-like, tips pointed, outer surfaces glabrous or pubescent.

Flowers:

Ray florets 7-13, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow, .5 to 1.2 inch, lobes 5, triangular. Disc florets 45-80, staminate; corollas yellow, .28 to .4 inch.

Fruits:

Achene, dark brown to blackish, obovoid, .2 to .24 inch, somewhat flattened, finely-ribbed; pappus absent.

Habitat:

Margins of woods, thickets, stream and river banks, roadsides; usually in wet sites.

Distribution:

Cherokee County, Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The Cherokee applied a poultice of crushed root to burns and cuts and the Iroquois took an infusion of roots for fevers.

Yellow bear's-foot inflorescence