By Cleveland Powell. Much to the delight of intrepid naturalists and pollinators alike, these two plants bloom even in drought. When I think of fall in the Hill Country, I can’t help but think of the purple bottle brushes growing along roadsides known as gayfeather.
But there’s also summer blooming gayfeathers that grow wild in Bexar County. I’m talking about Carrizo gayfeather (Liatris carrizzana) and dotted gayfeather (Liatris punctata). And they’re focus of this edition of a tale of two plants.
Native to the Lone Star State, Carrizo gayfeather, aka blazing star, ranges from Bastrop County southwest to Bexar all the way to just north of the Rio Grande. It used to be a variety of a more widespread species, pinkscale blazing star, but it was recognized as its own species due to its isolated range and unique physical characteristics.
They start to bloom in July and can continue until October or later if conditions are right. The petals of the flowers are small and white, but the phyllaries — the leafy bracts behind the petals — are bright pink or purple and very showy. The flowers are clustered densely on the stems producing quite a display.
As for dotted (or narrowleaf) gayfeather, this Hill Country variant starts blooming a little later in September. With narrowleaf gayfeather, it’s the purple petals that are the showy part, the phyllaries are just a normal green color. Monarch butterflies look particularly striking when drinking nectar from gayfeather flowers due to the contrast between their orange wings and the purple flowers. (Narrow leaf gayfeather was featured in an older GardenStyleSA article.)
Both gayfeathers have prodigiously deep roots and reliably bloom even during droughts. As the San Antonio region continues to experience drought, these two plants, which are important pollinator plants in normal years, will be blooming for the intrepid naturalist and pollinators to enjoy.
Cleveland Powell is a conservation planner for SAWS. He is enthusiastic about grass taxonomy and milkweed propagation. In his free time, Powell enjoys hiking around area parks in search of intriguing bugs, birds and plants.
