AMERICAN BASKET-FLOWER
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| File Size: 84 KB |
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Plectocephalus americanus (Nutt. ) D. Don
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| [=Centaurea americana Nutt.] |
| (Marion McGlohon photo) |
| Annual |
| Height: 20-80 inches |
| Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family |
| Flowering Period: June, July |
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| Also Called: | | American star-thistle, powderpuff thistle. | | Stems: | | Erect, sparingly branched above mid-stem, glabrous, minutely scabrous and minutely glandular. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, simple, sessile, mostly entire, margins entire or minutely toothed, surfaces glabrous or scabrous, often dotted with minute yellow to brown glands; basal blades often absent at anthesis, oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 4 to 8 inches long, .6 to 1.4 inches wide, angled or tapered to sharp point; cauline blades gradually reduced, ovate to lanceolate, mostly 2 to 4 inches long. | | Inflorescences: | | Heads, hemispheric, borne singly at end of stem or branches, disciform, 1.2 to 3.2 inches across, showy. Involucres broadly hemispheric, 1 to 1.8 inches tall, wider than tall. Phyllaries many in 6-10 series, appressed, overlapping, of two distinct parts, lower part pale green, entire, upper part straw-colored, with a comb-like fringe of 9-15 stiff, parallel bristles. | | Flowers: | | Ray florets absent; discoid florets many, deeply 5-lobed, lobes linear; outer corollas larger, pink to occasionally purplish-red or rarely white, 1.4 to 2 inches, raylike, usually sterile; central corollas pinkish, .8 to 1 inch, usually fertile. | | Fruits: | | Achenes, grayish brown to black, obovoid to oblong, .16 to .2 inch, somewhat flattened, glabrous or sparsely hairy; pappus bristles white, stiff, unequal, barbed, .24 to .55 inch. | | Habitat: | | Prairies, fields, roadsides, disturbed sites | | Distribution: | | Collected in Meade, Neosho, Saline, and Woodson counties. Specimens from Meade and Neosho counties appear to be from introductions. | | Origin: | | Native | | Uses: | | The Kiowa applied a poultice of leaves to skin sores (Moerman 1998). | | Comments: | | American basket-flower is not spiny though it is sometimes referred to as star-thistle or powderpuff thistle. The common name basket-flower alludes to the basket-like appearance of the overlapping phyllaries. It is sometimes cultivated as a garden ornamental. |
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| American basket-flower |  | | 134 KB | | (Marion McGlohon photo) |
| | American basket-flower habit |  | | 174 KB | | (Marion McGlohon photo) |
| | American basket-flower inflorescence |  | | 61 KB | | (Marion McGlohon photo) |
| | American basket-flower |  | | 171 KB | | (Marion McGlohon photo) |
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