Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

DAISY FLEABANE

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Erigeron strigosus Muhl. ex Willd.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 1 - 3 feet tall

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, branched above, appressed-hairy.

Leaves:

Alternate, few, simple, sessile, linear-lanceolate, 1.5 to 5 inches long, less than .5 inch wide, appressed-hairy; margins mostly entire; basal and lowest stem leaves tapering to slender stalks, spatulate, to 6 inches long, 1 inch wide; margins toothed to entire; sometimes absent at flowering.

Inflorescences:

Heads, several to numerous, in wide-branching clusters, terminal.

Flowers:

Heads to 1 inch wide; bracts narrow, nearly equal; ray florets 40-100, about .25 inch long, white to rarely pinkish or bluish; disk florets numerous, yellow.

Fruits:

Achenes, small, 2-nerved, those of disk florets tipped with inner series of fragile bristles and outer series of short scales; those of ray florets with only short scales; enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Open dry or moist prairies, pastures, roadsides, and disturbed areas.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Uses:

Ancient Europeans believed that the odor of this genus repelled fleas, thus the name fleabane. This seems to have no basis in fact.

Comments:

Daisy fleabane is our most common Erigeron. It is very drought resistant and will spread rapidly among overgrazed or drought stressed grasses.

See also annual fleabane (Erigeron annuus) and Philadelphia fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus).

Daisy fleabane