Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Slender greenthread

SLENDER GREENTHREAD

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Thelesperma megapotamicum (Spreng. ) Kuntze

Mitchell County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 12-30 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August

Also Called:

Indian tea, rayless thelesperma.

Stems:

Erect, slender, single or clustered, branched above, bluish green, glabrous.

Leaves:

Opposite, short-stalked to sessile, erect or ascending, rigid, 1.5 to 3.5 inches long, simple or deeply pinnately divided with linear segments about 1/8 inch wide; evenly but sparsely distributed along stem, sometimes concentrated on lower 1/2.

Inflorescences:

Heads, solitary, terminal, on stalks 3-9 inches long, cup-shaped, to 3/4 inch wide.

Flowers:

Bracts of 2 sizes; outer bracts 4-6, oblong to ovate, much shorter than inner; inner bracts 8, ovate-lanceolate, united at bases; ray florets absent; disk florets numerous, corollas deeply lobed, yellow with reddish brown veins.

Fruits:

Achenes, about 1/4 inch long, dark brown, tipped with 2 triangular, barbed awns, enclosing small seed.

Habitat:

Open prairies, pastures, and roadsides, particularly in rocky limestone soil.

Distribution:

Throughout but infrequent in east 1/3 of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans in the Southwest made a tea-like beverage from slender greenthread. Flowers yielded rust-colored dye and roots yielded a yellowish orange dye.

Comments:

Slender greenthread is well adapted to a dry climate and dry soil.

Slender greenthread inflorescence