[Members of the Sunflower
Family with Daisy-like Flower Heads East of the Cascade Mountains of Oregon and Washington]
Blanket Flower, Common Gaillardia, Great-flowered Gaillardia
Gaillardia aristata
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The photo at left shows a view from above down onto the flower head of blanket flower. Note the incised tips of and faint venation pattern of each ray flower, and the bright reddish ring at the base of the ray flowers around the outside of the central disk. Photographed on Steptoe Butte in eastern Washington.......June 22, 2009. The photo at right shows a blanket flower blooming along the Granite Trail, Waikiki Springs Nature Preserve, Spokane County, WA.....June 24, 2022..
Characteristics: Blanket flower is a pretty wildflower, with one to several
stems arising from a slender taproot to 70 cm in height. The herbage is somewhat
hairy. The leaves are long and narrow, being oblanceolate to linear-oblong,
at the most, 15 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The margins are variable, ranging
from entire, to coarsely serrate or pinnatifid.
The flower heads are solitary to a few per stem. The disk is
purple to brownish-purple and commonly 1-5-3.5 cm wide. The 6-16 rays (usually
13) are yellow with purplish bases and range from 1-3.5 cm long. It makes
an interesting addition to a naturalized dry garden.
Habitat:
Blanket flower is a plant of open places at low to middle elevations.
It is found in dry meadows, prairies, and along roadsides where it may collect
some of the runoff from the road surface.
Range:
Blanket flower is found from British Columbia east to Saskatchewan,
and south east of the Cascades to northern Oregon and hence east through northern
Utah to Colorado and South Dakota.
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Close-up details of the flowers and stem of blanket flower as seen in sagebrush uplands along the eastern Banks Lake shoreline near Million Dollar Boat Launch, Grant County, Washington............June 2, 2013.
The photo above shows a close-up of the underside of the flower head of blanket flower, including the involucral bracts. Photographed at the same location as above.
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Blanket flower as seen (left) along the Little Spokane River downstream of the Painted Rocks.........June 19, 2009. The photo at right shows a flowerhead of blanket flower as seen along the trail south of the Knothead Overlook in the Little Spokane River Natural Area...........May 9, 2016.
Blanketflower habitat in Logan Valley near the entrance to Big Creek Campground, Malheur National Forest.....July 9, 2023.
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Close-up of the flower head of blanket flower as seen at left along the Little Spokane River downstream of the Painted Rocks.........June 19, 2009.
Close-up of the flower head of blanket flower as seen at right along the Little Spokane River downstream of the Painted Rocks.........November 8, 2018.
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The photo at left shows a view from above down onto the flower head of blanket flower. Note the incised tips of and fain venation pattern of each ray flower, and the bright reddish ring of disk flowers around the outside of the central disk. Photographed at the trailhead for the Willard Springs Trail on the Conboy Lake NWR to the southeast of Mt. Adams.........July 28, 2006. The photo at center shows a blanketflower in bloom on Missoula Flood sandbars along the Little Spokane River..........June 26, 2020. The photo at right shows a flower head of blanketflower as seen in meadows just west of Big Creek Campground, Malheur National Forest......July 9, 2023.
Paul Slichter