BLANKETFLOWER

Gaillardia × grandiflora

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]

Flowers:
month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept month8oct month8nov

Pappus: pappusZpossible (brown, bristly, sharp, globular)
pappus8sep pappus8sept pappus8oct pappus8nov

status
statusZalien
flower
flower8bicolour
flower
flower8red flowers8brown
flower
flower8orange
flower
flower8yellow
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZMany
stem
stem8round
contact
contactZlowish

4th Sept 2013, Kent. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
A garden escapee which grows between 40-100cm high.


4th Sept 2013, Kent. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
Very showy flowers. Petals (ray florets) usually yellow near merging through a dark shape of orange through to deep red near the centre.


4th Sept 2013, Kent. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
The yellowish centre are disc florets. When fruiting the petals drop off leaving the fruiting pappus as a globe. The pappus has rough sharp bristles rather than woolly hairs, so the seeds (achenes) are unlikely to be spread by the wind (unless there is a strong gale).


4th Sept 2013, Kent. Photo: © Dawn Nelson
Leaves long and strap-like, a few lanceolate, with little or no stalk and coloured grey-green due to the whitish felty hairs.


Easily confused with : its parents, but they are very rare and hardly ever seen in the wild.

Not to be semantically confused with : Blanket Bog [an extensive acidic upland peat-bog]

Is the Hybrid between: Common Blanketflower (Gaillardia aristata) and Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) but the parents are very seldom seen growing wild in the UK (if at all); most reports of either parent are actually of this hybrid!

Some photos of this hybrid have ray florets that are deeply toothed at the periphery rather like the much smaller Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) or Maiden Pink (Dianthus deltoides) but with many more than just 5 petals. Whilst other photographs seem to lack flat ray florets but rather have an annular ring of trumpet shaped ray florets with five petals, rather like those of the much smaller Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), but yellow and red in colour rather than a deep sky blue. This may be a description of the 'Fanfare' variety of Blanketflower.


  Gaillardia x grandiflora  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Asteraceae  

Distribution
 family8Daisy & Dandelion family8Asteraceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Gaillardia
Gaillardia
(Blanketflowers)

BLANKETFLOWER

Gaillardia × grandiflora

Daisy & Dandelion Family [Asteraceae]