COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



YELLOW CONEFLOWER 



Lepachys pinnaia (Vent.) T. & G. 



The Yellow or Gray-headed Coneflower frequents dry open 

 places from Ontario and New York to Nebraska, south to Florida, 

 Louisiana and Kansas. Often it is with the Purple Coneflower, 

 and especially abundant along railroads, 

 where it makes a brilliant display from 

 June to September. It is a fine orna- 

 mental plant for the perennial garden. 



Stems and leaves are rough hairy. 

 The stem is ^-S ^^^^ high and simple or 

 branched. The alternate leaves are pin- 

 nately divided into 3-7 lanceolate, more 

 or less toothed or cleft lobes. The lower 

 leaves are petioled and sometimes 10 

 inches long, whereas the upper are ses- 

 sile or nearly so and may be small and 

 entire. 



There are only a few, long-peduncled 

 heads. The 4-10 long, yellow and droop- 

 ing ray flowers do not produce akenes. 

 The perfect disk flowers are gray and 

 later become brown. The bracts of the 

 involucre, few and small, are reflexed 

 and arranged in 2 or 3 series. The re- 

 ceptacle is oblong and its chaflFy bracts, 



somewhat thickened and hairy at the tip, partly envelop the 

 akene fruits. These are flattened and rather sharply winged 

 or margined, with i margin prolonged into a short tooth, repre- 

 senting all there is of a pappus. 



The Long-headed Coneflower, Lepachys columnaris (Sims) T. & 

 G., is \-iy2. feet tall, branching from the base, with terminal heads of 

 yellow flowers, or in the variety pulcherrima T. & G., with rays yellow 

 and purple-brown at the base. The thick leaves are pinnately divided 

 into linear or linear-oblong, toothed or cleft segments. Bracts of the 

 involucre are short, linear-lanceolate or awl shaped, and reflexed. 

 The broad rays are 4-10, drooping and notched at the end. The disk 

 is up to I inch long, and covered with perfect flowers and grayish 

 hairy-tipped chaff. This species grows on dry prairies northwest of 

 the Ohio river to Minnesota and south to Texas and Arizona. The 

 blooming period is May to August. 



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