Thursday, October 28, 2010

USA - Oklahoma - State Wildflower


Indian Blanket
Oklahoma's wildflowers create a colorful border along thousands of miles of Oklahoma highways. The Indian Blanket is one of the most vivid and spectacular of this naturally beautiful species and is Oklahoma's official state wildflower.

Sent by Amelia, a postcrosser from Tulsa in Oklahoma.

This is from Wikipedia : Gaillardia pulchella (Firewheel, Indian blanket, Indian Blanketflower, or Sundance), is a short-lived annual flowering plant native to the central United States.

The branching stem of this plant is hairy and upright, growing to 60 cm (2 ft) tall. The leaves are alternate, mostly basal, 4–8 cm long, with edges smooth to coarsely toothed or lobed. The pinwheel, daisy-like inflorescences are 4–6 cm diameter, vividly colored with red, orange and yellow. The central disc florets of the flower head tend to be more red-violet, with the outer ray florets being yellow. In one variety, almost the entire flower is red, with only the barest tips of the pedals touched with yellow. It blooms practically year-round in some areas, but more typically in summer to early fall. The seed is an achene.

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