COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



CYLINDRIC BLAZING STAR 



Liatris cylindracea Michx. 



The Blazing Stars or Button Snakeroots are among our most 

 handsome late-summer and autumn wild flowers. They 

 bloom mostly in August and September, and some of them are 

 easily grown in gardens, where 

 they make excellent ornamen- 

 tal plants. I 

 The Cylindric Blazing Star 

 grows in dry open places and is 

 rather limited in its distribution, 

 occurring from western Ontario 

 to Minnesota and south to Illi- 

 nois and Missouri. It is smooth 

 or nearly so and only 1-2 feet 

 high, sometimes branching near 

 the top. The leaves are nar- 

 rowly linear, 3-7 inches long and 

 rather rigid. 



The heads are several or nu- 

 merous, peduncled and with 

 1 5-60 purple and tubular flowers. 

 The receptacle is nearly flat and 

 not chaffy. The pappus is com- 

 posed of 15-40 very feathery 

 bristles. The broadly oval bracts 

 of the involucre overlap ap- 

 pressed in 5 or 6 series and are 

 abruptly acuminate at the apex. 

 The akenes are slender, 10- 

 ribbed and somewhat hairy. 



The Large Blazing Star, Lia- 

 tris scariosa Willd., also grows in 

 dry places. The stem is somewhat 

 hairy, at least above, and 1-6 feet high. The leaves are narrowly 

 lanceolate, the lowest sometimes i foot long and petioled, the upper 

 much smaller. The heads are hemispherical and one-half to i inch 

 broad. They are 15-45-flowered and borne on stout peduncles or are 

 sometimes sessile. The bracts of the involucre are in 5 or 6 series and 

 their tips and margins are often colored. The flowers are bluish 

 purple or very rarely white and they bloom in August and September. 



