Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Agoseris aurantiaca (Hook.) Greene
- Family: Composite (Compositae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: The solitary burnt orange flower heads have only ray flowers. The flowers fade to pink or purple as they dry out. There is milky sap present.
- Habitat: Wet meadows and fields.
- Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened rootstock.
- Stems: Aerial stem bears only a flower head, up to 1 1/2 feet tall, hairy, particularly just beneath the head; milky sap present.
- Leaves: All basal, simple or with a few jagged segments, lanceolate to oblong, up to 10 inches long, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, more or less smooth except for the hairy midvein; milky sap present.
- Flowers: Crowded into solitary heads 3/4-1 inch across, consisting only of burnt orange ray flowers; each head subtended by several oblong to lanceolate, pointed bracts.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 5, united to form burnt orange ray flowers 1/4-1/2 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Achenes linear, 1/6-1/3 inch long, strongly ribbed, tapering to a slender beak, with a tuft of soft hairs at the tip of the beak.
Previous Species -- Columbia Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum)
Return to Species List -- Group 8
Next Species -- California Amaranth (Amaranthus californicus)
