Liatris scariosa - (image 1 of 4)
Taxonomy
Family: Asteraceae
Habitat
Dry prairies, open woods, and other open places.
Associates
Distribution
ME to MI, south to PA, MO, AR, and in mountains to northern GA.
Morphology
Herbaceous perennial from a corm-like rootstock; stems glabrous or hairy, 30-80 cm, lowermost leaves mostly 10-35 cm long, long-petiolate, with elliptic to linear-elliptic or broadly oblanceolate blade; heads rarely more than 20(-35), subsessile or more often ascending on arcuate or sometimes spreading peduncles to 5 cm; involucres hemispheric, 9-17 mm; involucral bracts appressed to more often loose or sometimes distally squarrose, broadly rounded, often anthocyanic towards the apex, the middle ones only narrowly or not at all scarious-margined, often cilioate but not erose-lacerate, the innermost ones sometimes more obviously scarious and erose; flowers (21-)25-80 per head; corolla tube hairy toward the base (or near the middle) within; pappus strongly barbellate.
Notes
Flowers August to September
Wetland indicator: NA
Plants with relatively narrow lower leaves (mostly 1-2 cm wide) occur mostly near the coast from eastern NY to New England and have been called var. novae-angliae and are sometimes treated as L. novae-angliae (Lunell) Shinners. The plants pictured here were found in west central Ohio and are likely var. nieuwlandii Lunell which has wider lower leaves (mostly 2-5 cm wide) and differs from typical L. scariosa by more numerous cauline leaves (20-60 below the inflorescence vs. 8-20) that are usually stiffly ascending (vs. more or less lax) and flowers up to 80 per head (vs. rarely more than 40). Typical L. scariosa occurs on shale barrens from southern PA to northern GA while var. nieuwlandii ranges further inland to northern MI, MO, and AR.
References
Gleason, Henry A.
and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY.
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Michael Hough © 2018 |