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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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| NORTHERN GROUNDSEL | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Packera streptanthifolia | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Northern groundsel is 10 to 50 cm tall. The stems are usually solitary and hairless and are only leafy towards the base. There are many stalked basal leaves that have a smooth margin, except for at the tip, where there are three to five rounded teeth. The stem leaves are not stalked and are smaller farther up the stem. The stem leaves are deeply toothed to shallowly lobed. The heads are in a loose, cluster with bracts. The bracts on the head are 15 to 25 in one row. The ray flowers are yellow-orange and 6 to 8 mm long. The fruit is reddish-brown with a white pappus. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Northern groundsel grows on dry hillsides, in open woods, and in disturbed areas. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is found in northern to central Saskatchewan from Lake Athabasca to Candle Lake and is found in these four ecoregions: Mid-Boreal Upland, Churchill River Upland, Athabasca Plain, and Tazin Lake Upland. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Northern groundsel is vulnerable because it is restricted to certain regions of the province and the local populations are small. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY NORTHERN GROUNDSEL | |||||||||
| * Are the older plants nearly hairless? * Are the ray flowers orange-yellow and 6 to 10 mm long? * Are the basal leaves entire, except for a few rounded teeth at the rounded tip? * Did you find it in a dry hillside, open woods, or in a disturbed area in northern or central Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found northern groundsel! | |||||||||
