Liatris bracteata, commonly known as the South Texas gayfeather, is a species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

 in the aster family, Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

. It is native to Texas in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, where it is found in coastal prairies

Western Gulf coastal grasslands

The Western Gulf coastal grasslands are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Texas as "Coastal Prairie" and as the Tamaulipan pastizal in Mexico.-Setting:...

, roadsides, and along railroads with clay or sandy loam soils. This species is of conservation concern in its native range.

Description

Liatris bracteata grows from rounded corms that produce hairless, 25 to 75 cm (9.8 to 29.5 in) tall stems. The flowers are in loose heads that are widely spaced from each other on the stem. The heads have no stems (sessile) and are arranged in a spike-like collection. The foliage is dotted with glands and the basal and cauline leaves have one nerve and are linear in shape.

The seeds are produced in cypselae fruits that are 6 to 9 mm (0.236220472440945 to 0.354330708661417 in) long. The fruits have feathery bristles attached to top end of the seed.

L. bracteata flowers in September to November.

Taxonomy

Liatris bracteata might be a variety of Liatris punctata

Liatris punctata

Liatris punctata is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names dotted gayfeather, dotted blazingstar, and narrow-leaved blazingstar. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout the plains of central Canada, the central United States, and northern...

, with the morphological differences primarily in the number of florets per flower head. It is genetically a hexaploid, while populations of L. punctata are diploid and tetraploid.