Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WESTERN FLEABANE

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Erigeron bellidiastrum Nutt.

Sandsage Bison Range, Finney County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 1-16 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July, August

Also Called:

Pretty fleabane.

Stems:

Ascending to erect, much-branched from base, not producing prostrate runners, hirsute with antrorsely curved hairs.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, basal often withering early; basal blade spatulate to oblanceolate or linear, 2/5 to 3.2 inches long, 1/12 to 3/5 inch wide, margins usually entire, rarely obscurely serrate, surfaces sparsely strigose, eglandular; cauline gradually reduced above, base tapered.

Inflorescences:

Heads 1-15, radiate. Involucres turbinate to hemispheric, 1/8 to 1/5 inch tall, 1/4 to 2/5 inch wide. Phyllaries in 2-4 series, green, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, hispid, minutely glandular, apex erect.

Flowers:

Ray florets 20-70; corolla white, sometimes tinged lavender or light blue, ligule 1/6 to 1/3 inch. Disc corollas numerous, yellow, tubular, 1/12 to 1/8 inch, lobes 5.

Fruits:

Achenes oblong, flattened, 1/25 to 1/12 inch, sparsely strigose; pappus of outer series cartilaginous crowns, inner series 15-18 barbellate bristles.

Habitat:

Sand and sandsage prairies, sand dunes, sandy roadsides and pastures, flood plains.

Distribution:

Principally the southwest quarter of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Erigeron, early or woolly + old man, perhaps alluding to the pappus or the solitary heads of some species.

Western fleabane