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Species Image Gallery (opens in a new window) |
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| THE SUNFLOWER FAMILY | |||||||||
| The sunflowers are found around the
globe in many different places, from temperate climates, like in Saskatchewan,
to mountains or in dry regions. The sunflower family is very large and contains
about 19,000 species! As you can imagine, the plants in this family can
look very different from one another. The sunflowers can be shrubs or herbs,
with many different leaf shapes and flower colours. One thing that is common
to all sunflowers is the type of flower arrangement. In this family, there
are many flowers grouped together into a head, like the one you see on a
daisy. It looks like one flower from a distance, but when you get close
you will see that it is actually made up of many, small flowers. The head
may have ray flowers on the outside and disc flowers on the inside, or only
one of the two kinds. Many of the seeds, like the dandelion, have a fluffy
structure attached to the seed. This is called the pappus and helps the
seeds to spread in the wind. You probably know a lot of plants in the sunflower family. Sunflowers can be plants you eat or plants that you may grow in the yard. For example, did you know that lettuce is from the sunflower family? So are the marigolds in the garden! Maybe you have heard of Echinacea? It is a plant in the sunflower family that is used to make medicine. Some of the sunflowers are also weeds, like the dandelion. |
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| SMOOTH OXEYE | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Heliopsis helianthoides var. occidentalis | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Smooth oxeye is 80 to 150 cm tall with fibrous roots and a woody stem base. The stem is firm and branched. The leaves are opposite, stalked, and are 5 to 15 cm long. The margins are saw-toothed and the leaves are rough hairy. There are only a few heads on each plant each with yellow flowers. The stalk leading up the head is thicker directly below the head. The petals on the ray flowers do not fall off when the plant is in fruit. There are bracts on the cone-shaped receptacle that are associated with the ray and disc flowers. The fruits of the ray flowers are 3-angled and the fruits of the disc flowers are 4-angled. The pappus may be absent or crown-shaped. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Smooth oxeye grows in open woods, meadows, and roadsides. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is only found in the southeast corner of the province in the Boreal Transition and Aspen Parkland ecoregions. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Smooth oxeye is endangered because it is limited to one area of the province and the populations are almost always locally sparse. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY SMOOTH OXEYE | |||||||||
| * Are the leaves opposite? * Are the ray flowers yellow and still on the flower at the time of fruiting? * Is the receptacle cone-shaped? * Did you find it in a meadow, woods, or roadside in southern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found smooth oxeye! | |||||||||
