Kingdom Plantae Genus Blanket flowers Order Asterales | Family Asteraceae Rank Species | |
 | ||
Similar Blanket flowers, Chaetopappa ericoides, Gaillardia suavis, Erigeron divergens, Cirsium neomexicanum | ||
Gaillardia pinnatifida (Hopi blanketflower or red dome blanketflower) is a perennial plant in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) found in northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora) and in the south-central and southwestern United States (from southwestern Kansas south to central Texas and west as far as southern Nevada).
Contents
Description
Gaillardia pinnatifida is a perennial growing to 22 inches (56 cm) with hairy, wavy to lobed leaves up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) long, growing to halfway up the stem, with a solitary flower head on top having 7-12 yellow ray flowers and numerous densely packed orange-brown to purple disk flowers. The 3-tipped ray flowers may have tips so deep as to be considered lobed.
Gaillardia pinnatifida displays considerable variation in parts of its range, so much so that some authors have divided G. pinnatifida into varieties or distinct species. These taxa do intergrade with each other, so Flora of North America and the Kew Garden Plant List does not recognise any of these as separate taxa. Many populations in Arizona have unlobed leaves, unlike the deeply divided leaves farther to the east, and populations in Utah have yellow rather than brown or purple disc flowers, as well as gland-dots embedded in the leaves.
Habitat
Gaillardia pinnatifida can be found in blackbrush scrub, mixed shrub-grasslands, and pinyon juniper woodland communities.