[Members of the
Sunflower Family with Flower Heads like Sunflowers or Daisies: Columbia River Gorge 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 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 right shows one ov several late-blooming blanketflowers seen along trails several miles upstream along the Deschutes River from the junction with the Columbia River......November 20, 2020.
The photo at right shows blanket flower as seen along The Dalles Mt. Road to the northeast of The Dalles, OR.........1999.
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.
In the Columbia River Gorge, it is found between
the elevations of 0'-3000' in areas east of approximately Beacon Rock.
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Close-ups of the flower head and involucral bracts of blanket flower as seen at the Dalles Mt. Ranch in the Columbia Hills State Park, WA........June 3, 2009.
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Blanket flower as seen at left at the Dalles Mt. Ranch in the Columbia Hills State Park, WA.......June 3, 2009. The photo at right shows a blanket flower in bloom along Eightmile Creek above the waterfall, Columbia Hills State Park........November 18, 2017.
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Blanket flower still in bloom (left) on slopes above the Crawford Oaks Trailhead, Columbia Hills State Park..........October 12, 2013. Another blanketflower from half a mile east of the previous flower is shown in the photo at right........)ctober 2, 2016.
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Blanket flower still in bloom (left) on slopes above Eightmile Creek, Columbia Hills State Park..........October 26, 2014.
The basal leaves of blanket flower (right) on slopes above Eightmile Creek, Columbia Hills State Park..........January 15, 2016.
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Late-blooming blanketflowers observed on the cobble shoreline of Hamilton Island (originally Strawberry Island) just downstream of Bonneville Dam......November 29, 2023.
Very late blooming blanketflowers observed along trails along the lower Deschutes River.......January 4, 2019.
Paul Slichter