''Liatris'' (), commonly known as gayfeather and blazing star is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the tribe Eupatorieae within the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

(Canada, United States, Mexico and

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

). Some species are used as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

s, sometimes in flower bouquets. They are perennials, surviving the winter and resprouting from underground

corm Corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen, underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ''c ...

s. ''Liatris'' species are used as food plants by the

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

species such as

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

s of the genus ''

Schinia ''Schinia'', commonly called flower moths, is a large genus of moths belonging to the family Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family (biology), family of moths. Taxonomically, they are consid ...

''.

Classification

''Liatris'' is in the tribe Eupatorieae of the aster family. Like other members of this tribe, the flower heads have

disc floret Asteraceae () is a large family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger fa ...

s and no ray florets. ''Liatris'' is in the subtribe Liatrinae along with '' Trilisa'', '' Carphephorus'', and other genera. ''Liatris'' is closely related to ''

Garberia ''Garberia'' is a monotypic taxon, monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, containing the single species ''Garberia heterophylla''.endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The two genera can be distinguished by the

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

form of the latter and by

karyotype A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is discerned by de ...

Species

Species in the genus include:Flann, C (ed) 2009+ Global Compositae Checklist
GRIN Species Records of ''Liatris''.
GRIN.Turner, B. L. 1997. The Comps of Mexico: A systematic account of the family Asteraceae, vol. 1 – Eupatorieae. Phytologia Memoirs 11: i–iv, 1–272 * '' Liatris acidota'' – sharp blazing star, Gulf Coast blazing star - TX LA * '' Liatris aestivalis'' – summer blazing star - TX OK * '' Liatris aspera'' – tall blazing star - ONT, United States (

Mississippi Valley The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

, scattered locales in East) * '' Liatris borealis'' -

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( ) — also spelled Alleghany or Allegany, less formally the Alleghenies — is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada. Historically it represented a significant barr ...

of PA * '' Liatris × boykinii'' - GA AL * '' Liatris bracteata'' – bracted blazing star - TX * '' Liatris chapmanii'' – Chapman's blazing star - FL GA AL * '' Liatris cokeri'' – Coker's blazing star - NC SC * '' Liatris compacta'' – scaly blazing star - AR OK * '' Liatris creditonensis'' - ONT * '' Liatris cylindracea'' – Ontario blazing star, fewhead blazing star - ONT, central + southeastern United States * '' Liatris cymosa'' – branched blazing star - TX * '' Liatris × deamii'' * '' Liatris densispicata'' - MN * '' Liatris elegans'' – pinkscale blazing star, elegant blazing star - TX OK AR LA MS AL FL GA SC * '' Liatris elegantula'' – shaggy blazing star - TN MS AL GA FL * '' Liatris fallacior'' - ND * '' Liatris × frostii'' - MN MO * '' Liatris garberi'' – Garber's blazing star - FL

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

* '' Liatris gholsonii'' – Gholson's blazing star - FL * '' Liatris × gladewitzii'' - ONT, MI WI IL * '' Liatris glandulosa'' – glandular blazing star - TX * '' Liatris gracilis'' – slender blazing star - MS AL GA FL SC * '' Liatris helleri'' – Heller's blazing star, turgid blazing star - MD WV VA NC * '' Liatris hesperelegans'' – pink-scale blazing star, western elegant blazing-star - AR OK TX LA * '' Liatris hirsuta'' – hairy blazing star - central + southeastern United States * '' Liatris laevigata'' – shortleaf blazingstar - FL GA * '' Liatris lancifolia'' – lanceleaf blazingstar - NM TX CO WY KS NE SD IA * '' Liatris ligulistylis'' – Rocky Mountain blazing star, strap-style blazing star -

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

SAS

ALB An Alb is a liturgical vestment. ALB, Alb or alb may also refer to: * Alb, Alpine transhumance in Allemannic German Places * Alb (Upper Rhine), a tributary of the Upper Rhine in northern Black Forest near Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany * Al ...

ND SD MN WI IL IA MO NE WY MT CO NM * '' Liatris microcephala'' – small-head blazing star - NC SC GA AL TN KY * '' Liatris novae-angliae'' – New England blazing-star * '' Liatris ohlingerae'' – Florida blazing star, scrub blazing star - FL * '' Liatris oligocephala'' – Cahaba torch - AL * '' Liatris patens'' – spreading blazing star, Georgia blazing star - FL GA SC * '' Liatris pauciflora'' – fewflower blazing star - AL GA FL SC NC * '' Liatris pilosa'' – grass-leaf blazing star, shaggy blazing star - SC NC VA MD DE PA NJ * '' Liatris × platylepis'' - LA * '' Liatris provincialis'' – Godfrey's blazing star - FL * '' Liatris punctata'' – dotted blazing star, plains gayfeather -

SAS

eastern + central United States

Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

* '' Liatris pycnostachya'' – prairie blazing star, button snakeroot, cattail gayfeather, thickspike gayfeather, Kansas gayfeather - QUE eastern United States * '' Liatris × ridgwayi'' - IL KS * '' Liatris savannensis'' – savanna blazing star - FL * '' Liatris scariosa'' – northern gayfeather, devil's bite - eastern + central United States * '' Liatris × serotina'' - LA * '' Liatris × spheroidea'' - ONT * ''

Liatris spicata ''Liatris spicata'', the dense blazing star, prairie feather, gayfeather or button snakewort, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to eastern North America where it grows in moist prairies and meadows ...

'' – dense blazing star, button snakewort, florist gayfeather, marsh blazingstar, prairie-pine - ONT QUE eastern United States * '' Liatris squarrosa'' – loosescale gayfeather, colicroot, scaly blazing star - central + southeastern United States * '' Liatris squarrulosa'' – southern gayfeather, Appalachian blazing star - south-central + southeastern United States * '' Liatris × steelei'' - IL IN KY * '' Liatris tenuifolia'' – pine-needle gayfeather, shortleaf gayfeather - AL GA SC FL * '' Liatris tenuis'' – gulf blazing star, Shinners' gayfeather - TX LA * '' Liatris virgata'' – wand blazing star, King's Mountain gayfeather, piedmont gayfeather - VA WV NC SC GA * '' Liatris × weaveri'' - NE

References

* * {{Authority control Asteraceae genera Flora of Northern America Cormous plants