Hoary puccoon

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Hoary puccoon stem

Hoary puccoon

Hoary puccoon leaves and stem

Hoary puccoon

Hoary puccoon

Hoary puccoon

Hoary puccoon

Hoary puccoon flowers

Hoary puccoon leaves

Morphology

Stem

Often several, usually simple or sometimes branched near tip, pubescence soft-hairy and mainly appressed; tips erect.

Leaves

Alternate, often ascending, lanceolate to narrowly-oblong, .8 to 2.4 inches long, 1/6 to 1/2 inch wide, gray or whitish soft-hairy; tips blunt; primary stem leaves with 1 mid-rib.

Inflorescence

Cyme, leafy, densely flowered, terminal.

Flower

Bracts much longer than calyx; calyx 1/6 to 3/4 inch long, lobes 5, narrow, flat, nearly free, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, soft-hairy; corolla showy, funnel- to trumpet-shaped, 1/4 to 3/4 inch long, to 3/5 inch wide, yellow-orange, not bearded inside at base; lobes 5, entire, 1/5 to 1/4 inch long; stamens 5.

Fruit

Nutlets, 1-4, egg-shaped, hard, shiny, cream-colored; each containing one seed.

Ecology

Habitat

Dry prairies, dry open or rocky woods, roadsides; seldom on sandy soils.

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

The red taproot was used to make a red dye. Native American children would chew the root with gum to color it red and chew gum with the flowers to color it yellow. A compound medicinal tea was taken internally and rubbed on the body to quiet someone nearing convulsions.

Additional Notes