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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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| GOLDEN GROUNDSEL | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Packera pseudaurea | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Golden groundsel is 30 to 70 cm tall. The stem is slightly woolly when young, but becomes hairless as it gets older. The basal leaves are long-stalked and have woolly hairs in the leaf axils. The bases of the leaves are heart-shaped to square and are toothed or lobed. The stem leaves do not have stalks and are smaller farther up the stem. The margins of the leaves are lobed upwards and the leaves have woolly hairs in the axils. There are six to 20 heads in a branched cluster. The bracts are green with a brownish base. There are usually 13 or eight yellow ray flowers, though sometimes the ray flowers may be absent. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Golden groundsel grows in meadows, thickets, and open woodlands. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is found in southern to central Saskatchewan and is found in these three ecoregions: Cypress Upland, Mixed Grassland, and Aspen Parkland. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Golden groundsel is threatened because of rarity in the province. Although its range is relatively large within Saskatchewan, there are few recorded localities. No immediate threats are known but are possible in the future. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY GOLDEN GROUNDSEL | |||||||||
| * Are the older plants nearly hairless? * Are the ray flowers 6 to 10 mm long? * Are the basal leaves square or heart-shaped at the base? * Did you find it in a meadows, thickets, or open woodlands? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found golden groundsel! | |||||||||
