Liatris

Liatris
Liatris spicata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae (unranked): Angiosperms (unranked): Eudicots (unranked): Asterids Order: Asterales Family: Asteraceae Tribe: Eupatorieae Genus: Liatris Gaertn. ex Schreb.
Species
See text. About 30 known species.

Liatris aspera showing flower detail.

Liatris (pronounced /laɪˈætrɨs/;^[1] common names: Blazing-star, Gay-feather or Button snakeroot) is a genus of ornamental plants in the Asteraceae family, native to North America, Mexico, and the Bahamas.^[2] These plants are used as a popular summer flowers for bouquets.

They are perennials, surviving the winter in the form of corms.^[2]

Liatris species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Schinia gloriosa, Schinia sanguinea (both of which feed exclusively on the genus), Schinia tertia and Schinia trifascia.

Classification

Liatris is in the tribe Eupatorieae of the aster family. Like other members of this tribe, the flower heads have disc florets and no ray florets. Liatris is in the subtribe Liatrinae along with, for example, Trilisa^[3] and Carphephorus.^[3] Liatris is closely related to Garberia from Florida, but can be distinguished because the latter is a shrub and has a different karyotype.^[4]

Species

There are 37 species of Liatris.^[2] A partial list is:

• Liatris acidota
• Liatris aestivalis
• Liatris aspera - rough gayfeather
• Liatris bracteata
• Liatris chapmanii
• Liatris cokeri
• Liatris compacta
• Liatris cylindracea - Ontario blazing star
• Liatris cymosa
• Liatris elegans - pinkscale blazing star
• Liatris elegantula
• Liatris garberi
• Liatris gholsonii
• Liatris glandulosa
• Liatris gracilis
• Liatris graminifolia- grass-leafed blazing star
• Liatris helleri
• Liatris hirsuta
• Liatris laevigata
• Liatris lancifolia
• Liatris ligulistylis - meadow blazing star
• Liatris microcephala - dwarf gayfeather
• Liatris odoratissima - deerstongue
• Liatris ohlingerae
• Liatris oligocephala
• Liatris patens
• Liatris pauciflora
• Liatris pilosa
• Liatris provincialis
• Liatris punctata - dotted blazing star
• Liatris pycnostachya - prairie blazing star
• Liatris savannensis
• Liatris scariosa
  • L. scariosa var. nóvae-ángliae - New England blazing star
  • L. scariosa var. nieuwlándii - Nieuwland's blazing star
• Liatris spicata - dense blazing star
• Liatris squarrosa- Earl's blazing star
• Liatris squarrulosa - southern blazing star
• Liatris tenuifolia Florida blazing star
• Liatris tenuis
• Liatris virgata

References

1. ^ Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
2. ^ ^{a b c} "Liatris Gaertner ex Schreber". Flora of North America. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=118496. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Gregory J. Schmidt and Edward E. Schilling (2000). "Phylogeny and biogeography of Eupatorium (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae) based on nuclear ITS sequence data". American Journal of Botany 87: 716–726. doi:10.2307/2656858. PMID 10811796. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/87/5/716. 
4. ^ "Garberia A. Gray". Flora of North America. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=113251. 

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