Gaillardia aristata
 
Great-Flowered Gaillardia

Middle Stem

Centre Block, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
17-July-2012

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Gaillardia: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
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juice watery; NOT [juice milky]

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NOT [plants with a woody caudex; leaves linear; involucre glandular-glutinous]

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NOT [plants glandular-hairy, heavily scented annuals; rays 1-3, inconspicuous]

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plants with leafy stems; NOT [plants more or less scapose, cauline leaves none, or few and reduced to bracts]

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leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, at least the lower]

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flower heads large, usually more than 35 mm across; NOT [flower heads usually less than 35 mm across]

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involucral bracts in one or more series, all more or less the same; NOT [involucral bracts of 2 distinct, dissimilar series]

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involucre not sticky and gummy

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receptacle bristly; NOT [receptacle with chaffy scales between florets], NOT [receptacle naked]

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flower heads with both tubular florets and ray florets

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ligulate flowers when present pistillate or neuter; NOT [ligulate flowers perfect]

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rays mostly yellow, but crimson-purple at base; NOT [rays entirely yellow]

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stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

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pappus chaffy or of firm awns, or a crown or none; NOT [pappus wholly or partly of capillary bristles, sometimes plumose] (FOA)