Plant of the Week - Blazing Star

Blazing Star is a striking prairie flower that blooms in the hot, Indiana summer months.

20 years ago, students began collecting pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to raise money for the Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre program. 

Liatris pycnostachya, known as the prairie blazing star, is a perennial plant that belongs to the aster family. There are thirty species of this particular wildflower in North America, seven of which reside in Indiana - namely rough, northern, plains, cylindrical marsh and the prairie blazing star.

Blazing stars are unique and beautiful wildflowers. They are well-known for their colorful, feathery flower-heads which are densely clustered on stems covered with slender, grass-like leaves. This feather-like look is why the blazing star is commonly known as gayfeather.

Liatris spicata, the dense blazing star or prairie gay feather, is an herbaceous perennial plant native throughout most of eastern North America. Native to moist prairies and sedge meadows.

Liatris spicata var. resinosa is found in the southern part of the species natural range, the variable plants have only 5 or 6 flowers per head and the heads are more widely spaced on the stems, these differences are more pronounced when the plants are found in drier and coastal habitats.
Cultivation

Liatris spicata is a garden flower in many countries around the world, grown for its showy purple flowers (pink or white in some cultivars). The tall spikes of purple flowers appear in July and August. It thrives in full sun in ordinary garden soil and is excellent for attracting birds and butterflies. Under cultivation it is found under many names including; button snakewort, Kansas gay feather, blazing star, Liatris callilepis.

The prairie blazing star blooms during the summer months to early fall, between late July and September. Their erect stands of tall pink to dark lavender spikes are hard to miss. Though found naturally in the small native remnants of our prairie lands, the blazing star does remarkably well in home gardens. Its unusual characteristic of blooming from top to bottom makes the blazing star a good choice in fresh-cut floral arrangements. 

By merely pruning the top dead flowers, fresh flowers are just a snip away.

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