Liatris elegans |
Liatris elegans var. bridgesii |
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elegant gayfeather, pinkscale blazing star, pinkscale gayfeather |
pinkscale blazing star |
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Habit | Plants 30–120 cm. | |||||||||||||
Stems | puberulent to hirsute-puberulent. |
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Leaves | (basal on relatively distant internodes usually withering before flowering) proximal cauline 1-nerved, narrowly oblanceolate, 60–200(–300) × 3–8 mm, gradually or abruptly reduced distally (becoming slightly to strongly deflexed), essentially glabrous or sparsely puberulent, gland-dotted. |
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Peduncles | usually 0, sometimes 1–5(–10) mm. |
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Involucres | turbinate-cylindric, 12–20 × 4–6 mm. |
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Florets | 4–5; corolla tubes glabrous inside. |
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Corollas | creamy white. |
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Phyllaries | in 3–4 series, narrowly lanceolate-triangular, unequal, strigose to strigoso-hispid, margins with hyaline borders, apices (at least inner) prolonged, spreading, ± dilated, petaloid (pink, purplish, white, or yellow). |
apices petaloid, usually creamy white, sometimes initially lemon yellow fading to creamy white, rarely pale lavender, elongate and strongly recurving, petaloid portions short relative to herbaceous bases. |
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Heads | in dense, spiciform arrays. |
crowded. |
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Cypselae | 3.5–5(–6) mm; pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles plumose. |
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Corms | depressed-globose or globose to napiform. |
depressed-globose. |
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Liatris elegans |
Liatris elegans var. bridgesii |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Oct(–Nov). | |||||||||||||
Habitat | Post oak savannas, open, sandy woodlands, oak and pine woodland, roadsides, fields | |||||||||||||
Elevation | 100–200 m (300–700 ft) | |||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; OK; SC; TX
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TX |
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (4 in the flora). Variety elegans extends across the geographic range of the species; the other three varieties form local enclaves essentially imbedded within var. elegans and sporadically intergrading with it at points of contact (see further comments under 10d. var. kralii). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 21, p. 521. | FNA vol. 21, p. 522. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Liatris | Asteraceae > tribe Eupatorieae > Liatris > Liatris elegans | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Staehelina elegans | |||||||||||||
Name authority | (Walter) Michaux: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 91. (1803) | Mayfield: Sida 20: 598, fig. 1. (2001) | ||||||||||||
Web links |