Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BLACK-FOOT DAISY

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Melampodium leucanthum T. & G.

Clark County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 6-20 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August

Also Called:

Rock daisy, plains blackfoot.

Stems:

Erect to spreading, many, slender, arising from woody crown, branched, stiff-hairy or rarely bristly short-hairy.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple, sessile, linear to narrowly oblong, .8 to 1.6 inches long, to 2/5 inch wide; margins entire to slightly toothed or pinnately lobed.

Inflorescences:

Heads, solitary, to 1 inch across, terminal; stalks slender, 1.2 to 2.8 inches long, arising from upper leaf axils.

Flowers:

Involucral bracts in 2 series; outer bracts 5, ovate, united more than 1/2 way, margins entire; inner bracts each enclosing 1 ray achene, expanded hood-like above achene; ray florets 8-13, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, white, fertile, tips toothed; disk florets 25-30, corollas yellow.

Fruits:

Achenes, compressed, to 1/10 inch long, surface somewhat warty, enclosing small seed; bristles or scales absent.

Habitat:

Dry, open prairies, plains, pastures, and road cuts; rocky limestone soils.

Distribution:

Southwest 1/4 of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Black-foot daisy is tufted and slightly shrubby. From Greek melas "black" and podos "foot" in reference to the small foot-shaped bracts subtending the ray florets which turn black when mature. Black-foot daisy is strongly drought-resistant. It is often observed with Rocky Mountain zinnia Zinnia grandiflora.

Black-foot daisy inflorescences