Fire Spokes

by Paul Rebmann

Title

Fire Spokes

Artist

Paul Rebmann

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

A close up photograph of part of a Gaillardia pulchella flower showing some of the disk florets and some of the ray florets. Common names for this wildflower are Gaillardia, Firewheel, and Rosering Blanket Flower. This photo was made in April in Florida.

This image has been featured in the following groups:
1000 to 1999 Views Limit 1 per Day.
All Flowers,
Floral Photography and Art,
Flower Mania,
Images That Excite You,
Red
& Thoughts of Flowers

A frequent wildflower of open areas, beach sides and other disturbed sites throughout much of Florida, mostly but not exclusively coastal counties. The range extends throughout much of the United States except Kentucky, West Virginia and some northwest states. Firewheel is also found in Alaska, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
This annual or short-lived perennial is freely branched mostly at the base with ribbed stems. The leaves are alternate, hairy, lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate and are highly variable, with lower leaves pinnately lobed and stalked, upper leaves entire and sessile. Flowers have a reddish-purple disk and three-lobed rays that are most commonly bright reddish-purple with yellow tips, but color variations often occur.
The genus was named in 1788 for Antoine Ren� Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate, by archaeologist, plant physiologist and naturalist Auguste Denis Fougeroux de Bandaroy. Both were members of the Acad�mie Royale des Sciences. Gaillard was a naturalist, amateur botanist and patron of botany and received plant seeds from the French colonies which he both cultivated himself and shared with other botanists. The type specimen for Gaillardia had been cultivated in France, with a Louisiana origin.
(Subject description from the artist's Wild Florida Photo website www.wildflphoto.com)

Uploaded

July 29th, 2013

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