Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BARBARA'S BUTTONS

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Marshallia caespitosa Nutt. ex DC.

Wildcat Glades, Newton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 8-20 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Also Called:

Puffballs.

Stems:

Erect, unbranched, arising singly or often clustered, somewhat hairy, especially upward.

Leaves:

Mostly basal, alternate, firm; petiolate; blades linear-lanceolate to linear-elliptic, 2 to 6 inches long, .1 to .4 inch wide, 3-nerved, margins entire, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Heads borne singly, discoid, .8 to 1.3 inch across; peduncles .4 to 1.1 inch; involucres hemispheric; phyllaries 12-24 in 2 series, narrow, leaf-like, tips obtuse to acute, often mucronate.

Flowers:

Ray florets absent; disc florets 45-90, tubular, fertile; corollas white to pale lavender, usually hairy, prominently lobed; lobes 5, lance-linear, .16 to .24 inch long.

Fruits:

Achene, turbinate or clavate, 5-angled, 1-ribbed; pappus of 5 translucent scales, .1 inch long, equaling or exceeding the achene, margins irregularly fringed.

Habitat:

Limestone outcrops, sandy soils

Distribution:

Montgomery and Cherokee counties in Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Marshallia for Moses Marshall, 1758-1813, American botanist.

Barbara's buttons inflorescence