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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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| STEMLESS BITTERWEED | |||||||||
| LATIN NAME: Tetraneuris acaulis var. acaulis | |||||||||
| WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? | |||||||||
| Stemless bitterweed grows 10 to 30 cm tall. The roots are thick and woody, as is the base of the stem. The bases of old leaves are visible and have woolly hairs where they meet the base of the stem. The stem is unbranched and without leaves. The leaves are light green with silvery hairs. The heads are solitary. The bracts are in one or two nearly equal rows. There are ten to 15 yellow, toothed ray flowers. There are many yellow disc flowers. The fruits are hairy and the pappus is made of five to seven scales. | |||||||||
| WHERE DOES IT GROW? | |||||||||
| Stemless bitterweed grows on dry grassland hillsides. | |||||||||
| WHERE IS IT FOUND IN SASKATCHEWAN? | |||||||||
| This plant is found in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan in the Cypress Upland and Mixed Grassland ecoregions. | |||||||||
| WHY IS IT RARE? | |||||||||
| Stemless bitterweed is endangered in Saskatchewan because it almost always grows in very small groups and is limited to one area. | |||||||||
| HOW TO IDENTIFY STEMLESS BITTERWEED | |||||||||
| * Are the leaves all basal? * Do the leaves have woolly hairs where they meet the stem? * Is there only one head per stem? * Did you find it on a dry hillside in southwestern Saskatchewan? | |||||||||
| If you answered yes to all of these questions, you may have found stemless bitterweed! | |||||||||
