Liatris squarrosa - (image 1 of 5)
Taxonomy
Family: Asteraceae
Habitat
Dry, open places.
Associates
Distribution
DE to SD, south to FL and TX.
Morphology
Herbaceous perennial from a corm-like rootstock; stems glabrous or hairy, 30-80 cm; leaves linear or a little broader, firm, those near the base to 25 cm long and 4-13 mm wide, often partly sheathing, or the very lowest often smaller and deciduous; heads mostly few or even solitary, on stiff, erect peduncles or sessile; involucres 12-25(-30) mm; involucral bracts firm, with loose or squarrose, acuminate tip; flowers 20-45 per head, or up to 60 in the terminal head; inner surface of the corolla lobes coarsely hairy; pappus evidently plumose.
Notes
Flowers July to August
Wetland indicator: NA
The plants pictured here were found in west central Ohio and likely represent typical L. squarrosa which has a more eastern distribution (west to IL and MO) and has involucral bracts that taper to long, loosely spreading tips and with short and curly or appressed pubescence in the inflorescence. Other varieties are found further west have bracts that are more abruptly contracted and squarrose at the tip and stems that are either glabrous or with longer and more spreading hairs.
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 |