Photo Credits: Terry Wright, USFWS

Blazing star is a perennial with a large corm (underground bulb like root system).

• Plant arises in several stems, usually one to 15, with stiff and erect, linear alternately placed leaves.
• The inflorescence (flowering part of the plant) contains no ray florets, but four to eight bluish-purple to violet-pink florets with a five lobed corolla. It has five stamens (male reproductive organ on a flower) and oblong bracts and ciliate (marginal fringe of hairs).
• The flowers produce nectar that attracts butterflies.
• The fruit is a cylindric achene (small, dry, indehiscent fruit with a single locule and single seed, with seed attached to ovary wall) with pappus bristles that can aid in wind dispersal.
• The fall bloomer prefers well adapted upland prairies, grasslands and gravely soils on roadsides and hillsides.
• Sometimes Blazing star is found in gardens as an ornamental and been cultivated since the 1700’s.
  

For a complete Refuge species list

For in-depth plant information
connect with the U.S. Dept Agriculture Plant Data Base

Last Updated: 1/14/09

Blooming Times On The Refuge

April-June: Sand lily

May-June: Ball cactus, Prickly pear

May-July: Scarlet butterfly weed, Prairie evening primrose, Blanket flower, Low daisy

May-August: Blue flax, Wine cup

June-August: Rocky Mountain beeplant, Wavy leaved thistle, Blazing star

June-September: Prairie coneflower, Hairy golden aster, Evening star, Sunflower, Scarlet globemallow

July-September: Black eyed susan, Purple prairie aster

NORTHERN PRAIRIE WILDLIFE RESEARCH CENTER