WRIGHT’S BACCHARIS
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| File Size: 243 KB |
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Baccharis wrightii A. Gray
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| Grant County, Kansas (Marion McGlohon photo) |
| Perennial |
| Height: 4-32 inches |
| Family: Asteraceae – Sunflower or Composite Family |
| Flowering Period: August, September |
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| Stems: | | Erect, much-branched from woody base, glabrous. | | Leaves: | | Alternate, cauline, lower leaves often withering early; petiole absent; blade oblanceolate to narrowly oblong or linear, 1/5 to 4/5 inch long, 1/25 to 1/4 inch wide, bases tapered, margins entire or finely serrate, surfaces glabrous, not gland-dotted. | | Inflorescences: | | Heads conspicuous, usually borne singly, terminal on slender branches, staminate and pistillate heads on separate plants. Pistillate and staminate involucres bell-shaped to hemispheric, pistillate 1/8 to 1/5 inch, staminate 1/5 to 1/8. Phyllaries narrowly lanceolate, 1/12 to 1/4 inch, tips acute or acuminate. | | Flowers: | | Staminate florets 20-30; corolla whitish, 1/6 to 1/4 inch, filiform. Pistillate florets 20-30; corolla whitish, 1/8 to 1/5 inch, filiform-tubular. | | Fruits: | | Achenes tan, obovoid to cylindric, 1/8 to 1/5 inch, slightly compressed, strongly 5-10-nerved, glandular-scabrous; pappus of 25-50 barbellate bristles, 3/5 to 4/5 inch long; bristles reddish brown. | | Habitat: | | Dry, sandy shortgrass and sandsage prairies | | Distribution: | | Southwest 1/4 of Kansas | | Origin: | | Native | | Comments: | | Subshrub; dioecious. Wright’s baccharis has a bushy habit. See also Baccharis salicina .
Baccharis for the Roman god Bacchus and wrightii for Charles Wright, an American botanist who collected in Texas. |
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| Wright’s baccharis |  | | 286 KB | | Grant County, Kansas (Marion McGlohon photo) |
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