Common names:
Indian blanket, firewheel
Family:
Scientific name:
Gaillardia pulchella
Main flower color:
Range:
California and south Nevada, east to Texas and the southern Great Plains
Height:
Up to 2 feet
Habitat:
Canyons, roadsides; disturbed ground
Leaves:
Alternate, oblong or spatulate, up to 3 inches in length, with entire or lobed edges
Season:
May to August
The branched stems and the narrow, oblong leaves of gaillardia pulchella are generally less hairy (the hairs are very short) than the similar gaillardia aristata, which has noticeably longer hairs. Leaves are found mostly around the base of the stem.
Flowerheads grow singly or in leafy clusters; they have eight to 14 ray florets, quite deeply divided into three lobes at the tip, and may be all red, all yellow, or banded (most common; red at the base), and surround a center of 40 to 100 reddish-purple disc florets. Flowerheads are large, up to 3 inches in diameter, subtended by between 18 and 28 phyllaries, narrowly triangular in shape. Flowers can bloom all year, but May to August is the usual period.
Flowerheads grow singly or in leafy clusters; they have eight to 14 ray florets, quite deeply divided into three lobes at the tip, and may be all red, all yellow, or banded (most common; red at the base), and surround a center of 40 to 100 reddish-purple disc florets. Flowerheads are large, up to 3 inches in diameter, subtended by between 18 and 28 phyllaries, narrowly triangular in shape. Flowers can bloom all year, but May to August is the usual period.
All Contents © Copyright The American Southwest | Comments and Questions | Contribute | Site Map