Blanket Flower
Blanket Flower
Gaillardia pulchella Foug.
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)
▲ ▼ mature flowering plants
▲ ▼ head inflorescences
▲ ▼ head inflorescences, showing different color ranges of ray flowers
▲ post-flowering heads, leaving globe-shaped structure that will break apart to release fruit/seeds
Gaillardia pulchella Foug., Rose-ring Gaillardia, Blanketflower: (Bayer Code: GAIPU; US Code GAPU)
- Native, annuals or short-lived perennial wildflowers that grow 0.5 to 2 feet tall, usually much branched from the base, with hairy stems and leaves
- Leaves are alternate, lanceolate, with rounded-toothed lobes (sometimes unlobed) in upper portion of leaf; leaves have short or no petiole
- Head inflorescences are borne singly at tips of elongated, hairy flowering stems and are about 1-2 inches across
- Heads have 8-14 ray florets (“petals") that are orange to red at their base, and yellow and lobed at their tips; the 40-100 or more disk florets are yellow fading to reddish-purple
- Bracts below the inflorescence are green, hairy, with toothed margins
- Flowering time is late spring through late summer
- Prefers full sun, prairies, pastures, rangeland, sandy or limestone soils