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  Asteraceae : Ericameria nauseosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Ericameria nauseosa is a woody perennial shrub 0.5-3 m tall, having a woody base and gray green younger branches with a dense covering of appressed hairs that can look like bark until one lightly scrapes the surface. The smooth to somewhat hairy leaves are alternate, sessile or nearly so, linear to narrowly linear lanceolate, 2-6 cm long and 1-2 mm wide and marked by 1 t0 3 nerves. The inflorescence is a series of rounded terminal compound cymose clusters of heads. The pungent-smelling heads are surrounded by 20-25 bracts in vertical ranks 6-8 mm tall and contain 5 yellow disk flowers. The corolla is 6-9 mm long with 5 lobes up to 2 mm in length. The fruit are 5-angled achenes about 5 mm in length with a pappus of numerous bristles. Rubber Rabbitbrush blooms from August to October on hills and high plains predominantly in western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae: Erigeron divergens

  R Neil Reese

  Erigeron divergens is annual to biennial to weakly perennial herb with erect stems, 10–40 cm long, often branched at the base from a simple caudex, the stems covered with short stiff hairs. The leaves are both basal and cauline. The basal blades are obovate to oblanceolate, 1–5 cm long, with petioles up to 5 cm long, the margins are entire. These leaves usually deciduous by flowering. The simple, alternate cauline leaves are reduced in size, becoming oblanceolate to linear and sessile above. The inflorescence consists of numerous heads in an open, diffuse cluster, nodding in bud. The involucres are hemispheric, 3–5 mm tall with 3 to 4 series of glandular, hairy bracts with a brown midvein. There are 70 – 150 ray flowers with blue to pink to white ligules, 5-10 mm long and numerous yellow disk flowers, 2–3 mm long. The fruit are achenes about 1 mm long. Spreading fleabane blooms from June into August on open sandy and rocky sites in western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Erigeron pumilis

  R. Neil Reese

  Erigeron pumilus is a taprooted perennial with a simple to branched caudex with ascending to erect stems, 5–30 cm tall covered with long, spreading hairs, many of which are glandular toward the top. The basal and alternate cauline leaves are simple, entire, the blades are linear- to narrowly oblanceolate, 15–80 mm long and up to 8 mm wide. The inflorescence is a cluster of heads (1-many) that are 7-15 mm in diameter. The involucre is 4–8 mm high, the bracts in 2 to 4 series, with minutely glandular hairs and a brownish midvein. Each head has 50–100 white to pinkish (occasionally bluish) ray flowers, the ligules 5–12 mm long. Corollas of the disk flowers are yellow and 2–5 mm long. Achenes are 1–2 mm long with a pappus of 2 rows of bristles. Shaggy fleabane blooms from June into August on dry high plains and prairies predominantly in west river South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Eupatorium perfoliatum

  R. Neil Reese

  Eupatorium perfoliatum is a perennial herb arising from a rhizome, with stems, covered with hairs, that grow from 40 to 150 cm tall. The simple, opposite leaves clasp the stems. The blades are broad at the base and taper to a point at the tip, 7-20 cm long and up to 4 cm wide, with toothed margins and hairy lower sides. The inflorescence is made up of flat-topped clusters of heads. Each head has a 4-6 mm involucre of overlapping bracts in several series. There are 9-23 white disk flowers that produce 5-sided achenes that have a bristly pappus. Boneset blooms in August and September in damp prairies and bogs in the eastern edge of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae: Eutrochium maculatum

  R Neil Reese

  Eutrochium maculatum is a perennial herb growing from 40 to 200 cm tall. The stems are variously purple spotted to completely purple. The simple leaves are in whorled in groups of 4 or 5, narrowly lanceolate to lance-ovate, usually with a short petiole. The blades are 6-15 cm long and 2-8 cm wide, with toothed margins. The inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of heads with a 6-9 mm involucre of overlapping bracts. Each head contains 8-22 rose to purple disc flowers. Fruit are 5-sided achenes with a pappus of bristles. Spotted joe-pye weed blooms from July into September and is found in marshes, fens, swamps, ditches, and wet fields in eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae: Gaillardia aristata

  R Neil Reese

  Gaillardia aristata is a perennial herb with 1 to several hairy stems, 30-60 cm tall from a taproot. The weakly petiolate leaves are basal and alternate on the stem, oblong to lanceolate-ovate, 5-15 cm long, up to 2.5 cm wide, with the margins various from entire to toothed to somewhat pinnately lobed. The inflorescence consists of solitary to a few heads on long peduncles with an involucre of 2-3 series of hairy, pointed bracts, 1-2 cm long and with bristly hairs on the receptacle that are longer than the achenes. The ray flowers have 3-parted ligules, yellow with a purplish base and 1-3 cm long. The disk flowers are purple to brownish purple, hairy toward the top, with a style that is exerted from the corolla. The fruit are achenes about 4 mm long and covered with long hairs. Blanketflower blooms from June into August on open plains and prairies of northeastern and western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Helenium autumnale

  R. Neil Reese

  Helenium autumnale is a perennial herb with erect stems growing from 30 to 130 cm tall, often branched above. The simple alternate leaves are narrowed at the base and wrapping the stem, the blades lance-linear to almost ovate 4-15 cm long and up to 4 cm wide. The inflorescence is a cluster of heads in an open leafy cluster at the top of the plant. Each head is 1-2 cm in diameter with an involucre of 1- 2 rows of narrow bracts that bend downward. There are 10-20 ray yellow flowers surrounding a cluster of many yellow disk flowers on a domed receptacle. The fruit are achenes about 1.5 mm long with a scaley pappus. In August through October, one plant can produce as many as 100 yellow flower heads. Sneezeweed can be found on moist open slopes in South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Helianthus annuus

  R. Neil Reese

  Helianthus annuus is an annual, erect, coarse, tap-rooted plant with stems that are 0.6-3 m tall and rough-hairy. The lower-most leaves are opposite, but most of the leaves are alternate with a long petiole. The blades are ovate to triangular, 10-40 cm long and 5-20 cm wide, egg-shaped to triangular, with toothed to almost entire margins and 3 primary veins radiating from the base. There are 1- many heads in the inflorescence, with each flower head attached to a long peduncle at the end of a branch, the heads are 7.5-15 cm wide, and the involucre has several series of ovate bracts with a long abruptly tapered tip, that often have short hairs along their edges. The 10-40 ray flowers are yellow, the ligule 2.5+ cm long. The numerous disk flowers are reddish-brown to purple or rarely yellow. The achenes are 3-15 mm long. Common sunflowers bloom from July through September in open sites and disturbed areas throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Helianthus maximilianii

  R. Neil Reese

  Helianthus maximiliani is a perennial herb growing from a stout, rhizomatous root. The generally unbranched stems occur singly or in loose clusters, growing from 0.5 m to 2.5 m tall, light green to purplish in color and covered with short, dense white hairs. The simple, mostly alternate leaves are lanceolate 7-30 cm long and 1-5 cm wide, very pointed and folded upward from the central vein, with slightly wavy entire to toothed margins. The leaf surfaces are covered with coarse white hairs. The inflorescence contains few to many heads, 2.5-7 cm in diameter, on peduncles that emerge from the leaf axils. Each head has an involucre of several series of bracts that exceed the disk, 15 to 25 yellow ray flowers, the ligules up to 4 cm long, and numerous greenish yellow to dark brown disc flowers. The fruit are achenes 3-4 mm long. Flowering occurs from August into October. Maximilian sunflowers occur on damp and open prairies, in waste grounds, often in sandy soils, throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Helianthus tuberosus

  R. Neil Reese

  Helianthus tuberosus is a perennial herb, growing from a tuberous rhizome, reaching 1 m to 3 m in height. The simple, leaves are opposite at the base of the plant, becoming alternate toward the top. The blades are ovate to lanceolate, 10-25 cm long, 6-15 cm wide and tapered at the base, forming a winged petiole. The leaf margins are usually toothed, and the lower surface covered with short woolly hairs. The inflorescence is composed of several to numerous heads, each with a disk 1-3 cm in diameter. The involucral bracts are in several series and slightly exceeding the disk. There are 10-20 yellow ray flowers with ligules 2-4 cm long surrounding many yellow disk flowers. The achenes are 5-7 mm long and lack hairs. Jerusalem artichoke blooms from August into October on open or shaded moist sites throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Heterotheca villosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Heterotheca villosa is a perennial herb with simple to branched sprawling to somewhat erectnstems, 10-50 cm long, arising singly or in clusters from a taproot. The upper stems are hairy with sessile or stalked resin glands. Leaves are simple, alternate and petiolate toward the base, becoming sessile toward the upper portions of the stems. The middle cauline leaves are oblanceolate, 1-3 cm long and 3-8 mm wide. The inflorescence is flat topped to paniculate with 3-30 heads coming from each branch, with each head surrounded by an involucre of 4-9 series of bracts with a total height of 7-12 mm. there are 20-30 ray flowers , the golden ligules 8-12 mm long and about as many yellow disk flowers, 5-8 mm long. The achenes have an outer scaley pappus and an inn bristly one. Golden aster blooms from July through September on sandy upland sites in both eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Liatris aspera

  R. Neil Reese

  Liatris aspera is a perennial herb with 1 or more usually unbranched green or purplish stems arising from a thickened corm-like rootstock and growing 40-120 cm in height. The alternate, simple leaves are petiolate, narrow and blade-like with a prominent central vein and pointed tip, 5-40 cm long and 6 to 40 mm wide at the base of the stem, becoming smaller and sessile upward. The leaves are entire and have a rough texture from a covering of short stiff hairs. The inflorescence is an elongate and spikelike cluster of campanulate heads, 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter. The heads have an involucre of loosely spreading, greenish to purple bracts. The 25-40 flowers are all tubular, pink to purplish in color (occasionally white), star shaped and hairy within and the pappus is composed of finely barbed hairs. The achenes are 4-5 mm long with a pappus of long hairs. Rough blazing star blooms from July through September open slopes, prairies and meadowlands of eastern South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Liatris punctata

  R. Neil Reese

  Liatris punctata is a perennial herb with erect or slightly spreading stems arising singly or in clusters from a taproot-like rootstock and growing 10 to 80 cm in height. The numerous simple leaves are densely packed on the stem, very narrow and linear, up to 15 cm long and 5 mm wide near the base of the plant, becoming smaller toward the top. The leaves are entire, tend to point upward but may be more spiraling at the base of the plant. They are covered with resin dots (punctate) and have short white hairs around the margins. The inflorescence is a spike-like arrangement of cylindrical heads 1.5-2 cm tall with an involucre of narrow overlapping pointed bracts. The 4-8 pink to purple disk flowers are all tubular and star shaped, the inside covered with soft, thin hairs. Dotted-gayfeather blooms from July to October on dry prairies, native pastures and open uplands, especially on sandy soils, throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Lygodesmia juncea

  R. Neil Reese

  Lygodesmia juncea is a perennial herb arising from a woody rhizome, growing from 10 cm to 70 cm in height and having a yellow milky sap. The mostly erect to ascending stems are green, stiff, hairless and much branched. The stems often have round 1 cm wide galls made by a solitary wasp. These are few leaves, the lower ones are entire, linear to linear lanceolate, less than 4 cm long and 3 mm wide and pointed at the tip. The upper leaves become smaller as they ascend the stem and are reduced to scales in the upper plant. There are numerous heads, each single at the end of a branch. The involucre is cylindrical, about 1.5 cm tall, the green bracts in 2 series, the outer short and unequal in length, the inner long and narrow. Each head has 5 pink to lavender, sometimes whitish ray flowers, the ligule is 10-12 mm long with 5 small teeth at the tip. The fruit are cylindrical achenes 6-10 mm long with a tuft of white to light brown hairs. Rush skeletonweed is commonly found from low to mid elevations throughout South Dakota, in dry grasslands, sagebrush steppes, and open pine woodlands, often on disturbed sites. Lygodesmia juncea blooms from June to August.

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  Asteraceae : Machaeranthera pinnatifida

  R. Neil Reese

  Machaeranthera pinnatifida is an evergreen, perennial herb usually with numerous, ascending to erect stems, branched above, reaching 5-40 cm in height, with at least the upper 1/3 covered with minutely glandular and short wooly hairs. The simple alternate leaves are oblong to linear subspatulate, 1–6 cm long and 2-10 mm wide, toothed with bristle-tipped teeth or deeply pinnate lobes that are linear and spine-tipped. Inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of heads, each solitary on a branch tip. Heads are radiate with a hemispheric involucre 6–9 mm long with 5 or 6 series of bracts that are hairy and sticky to the touch, the outer ones green and the inner ones whitish. There are 14 to 60, yellow ray flowers with ligules 4–10 mm long, and 30 to 150 disk flowers with yellow corollas 4–6 mm long. Achenes are about 2 mm long. Spiny goldaster blooms from May through September on open prairies and plains throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Packera cana

  R. Neil Reese

  Packera cana is a perennial herb growing 10-30 cm tall, the stems and leaves densely covered with felt-like hairs giving them a silvery gray color. The leaves are simple and alternate. The rosette of basal leaves and the lowest cauline leaves have long petioles, the blade ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, with a blunt to rounded tip, and with margins that are entire to slightly toothed. The upper cauline leaves are much reduced. The is a corymbiform cyme with 6-15 heads. Each head has an involucre of 13-21 bracts measuring 5-6 mm in length. There are 8-13 ray flowers, the yellow ligules 7-10 mm long (occasionally absent), surrounding many yellow disk flowers, their corollas with 5 shallow teeth. The cylindrical achenes are about 2 mm long with a pappus of longer white hairs. Woolly groundsel blooms from May through July on open dry plains predominantly in western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Prenanthes racemosa

  R. Neil Reese

  Prenanthes racemosa is a perennial herb that grows from a fibrous root system with simple erect stems that have milky sap and are 30–150 cm tall. The stems have long, coarse hairs above and no hairs below. The leaves are simple, alternate, with the basal and lower cauline leaves ovate, petiolate, 7–40 cm long and up to 10 cm wide, with entire to toothed margins. The upper leaves becoming lanceolate and sessile. The inflorescence consists of heads arranged in racemes to narrow panicles. The heads with an involucre that is narrowly campanulate, 11–12 mm high, with bracts arranged in 2 rows that are purplish and variously hairy. The outer row of bracts is short, and the inner row is linear-lanceolate with a scarious margin. Each head contains 9-29 white to pink to purple ray flowers, the ligule 7–13 mm long. Fruit is an achene with 8-12 ribs and a pappus of numerous deciduous bristles. Rattlesnake root blooms in August and September in damp open prairies, meadows and along stream banks in eastern and western South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae :Pseudognaphalium macounii

  R. Neil Reese

  Pseudognaphalium macounii is an annual or biennial herb growing from a taproot with stiffly erect stems 30-100 cm tall, with stalked-glandular hairs throughout and the upper most parts covered with white wooly hairs. The simple alternate leaves are 3-10 cm long and 3--13 mm wide, lanceolate to oblanceolate, the margins curled under near the base. The inflorescence is a flat-topped cluster of campanulate heads 5-6 mm tall. The involucre is 4.5-5.5 mm long with bracts in 4--5 series, cream to straw colored. And there are many disk flowers in t series the out slender and the central dozen wider, the corollas white to yellow. The achenes are about 1 mm in length. Macoun’s everlasting blooms from July into October on open slopes, in meadows and floodplains in Lawrence and Pennington Counties in South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Ratibida columnifera

  R. Neil Reese

  Ratibida columnifera is a perennial herb with green stems arising singly or in clusters from a taproot, growing from 30 to 100 cm in height. The stems are hairy and often branched. The simple, alternate leaves are hairy and have many small glands, growing up to 15 cm long and 6 cm wide, deeply pinnately to bipinnately lobed (5-11 lobes), the ultimate segments being linear to oblong and often very unequal. One to a few heads sit atop a long peduncle, with 2 series of reflexed involucral bracts. Each head consists of 4 to 12 drooping, yellow, purplish-red, or purplish-red with yellow bordered ray florets that surround a columnar receptacle that is up to 5 cm long. The column is covered with numerous purplish disk florets, which open starting at the base of the column and moving upward. the achenes are 1.5-3 mm long with short hairs on the inner edge. Prairie coneflower blooms from June to September along roadsides in open prairies and disturbed fields throughout all of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae Ratibida pinnata

  R Neil Reese

  Ratibida pinnata is a perennial herb with 30-120 cm, simple, hairy stems arising singly or in clusters from a rhizome. The stems can become branched in the region the inflorescence develops. The simple, alternate, petiolate leaves are up to 40 cm long and deeply pinnately divided, with the larger segments pointed and lance-ovate in shape. The margins vary from coarsely toothed to entire and the leaf surfaces are covered with short stiff hairs. The leaves are reduced in size as they ascend the stem becoming bract-like near the top. There are 1 to 12 flower heads at the top of the plant, each at the end of a long peduncle, and having a globular to oblong receptacle 1-2.5 cm tall and 1-2 cm wide, surrounded by 10-14 involucral bracts in 2 series. The heads have up to 15 yellow ray flowers, the ligules 3-6 cm long, spreading to drooping. The numerous greenish purple to brown disk flower’s corollas are 1.3-3 mm long and lack a pappus. The achenes are 2-3 mm in length. Gray-headed coneflower blooms from June through September in prairies and open woodlands on the eastern edge of South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Rudbeckia hirta

  R. Neil Reese

  Rudbeckia hirta is an annual (sometimes biennial or perennial) herb with ascending stem growing 30–100 cm tall. The stems are covered in long, white, stiff, spreading hairs and are generally unbranched or have a few branches in the upper half. The leaves are simple, alternate, petiolate, mostly basal, extremely variable in shape. The lower leaves are oblanceolate, 10–18 cm long and covered by coarse hair. The middle leaves are short petioled, lance-linear and reduced in size. The upper-most leaves are greatly reduced and sessile. The leaf margins are entire o with a few shallow teeth. The inflorescence consist of 1 to a few long-stalked flower heads at the top of the plant and arising from upper leaf axils. The receptacle is up to 2 cm in diameter, hemispheric to ovoid surrounded by hairy, elongated involucral bracts. There are 18-21 yellow to yellow-orange ray flowers with ligules 2-4 cm long, sometimes purplish near their base, surrounding the numerous brown to purplish brown disk flowers. The achenes are four-sided, ~2 mm long and lack a pappus. Black-eyed Susan bloom from May to September, mostly in disturbed prairies, roadsides and waste areas in northeast and southwest South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Solidago canadensis

  R. Neil Reese

  Solidago canadensis is a perennial forb with stems arising singly or in clusters from a rhizome and growing from 0.3 m to 2 m in height. The simple, alternate leaves are 3-nerved, 3-15 cm long and 5-20 mm wide, lance-elliptic: broadest near the middle, tapering to a sharp point at the tip and to a stalkless base. The margins are toothed, especially toward the leaf tips and the undersides of the leaves usually hairy. The inflorescence consists of widely varying shaped panicles of bright yellow heads. Each head has an involucre of 3 – 4 series of yellowish green bracts with a total length o 2-4.5 mm. there are 10-18 ray flowers, the ligules yellow and 1-3 mm long, surrounding 2-8 yellow disk flowers. The achenes are brown, oblong, 1 to 1.5 mm long, with white pappus of short hairs. Canadian goldenrod blooms from July to September in moist to drying open prairies and woodlands throughout South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Solidago mollis

  R. Neil Reese

  Solidago mollis is a perennial herb with a single or clusters of several ascending, grayish green stems arising from a rhizome and growing from 10 to 70 cm tall. There are both basal and alternate cauline leaves, thickish, firm, 3-nerved, elliptic to lanceolate, 3-8 cm long and 1-3 cm wide. The leaves are sessile or nearly so, the margins are subentire to irregularly toothed, and their size is reduced in the upper regions of the stem. The inflorescence is a dense, compact to elongated panicle of yellow heads. The heads have an involucre of overlapping bracts with a total height of 3.5-6 mm, with 6-10 ray flowers, corollas 3-4 mm tall with ligules 1-3mm in length, and 3-8 disk flowers, 2-5 mm tall. The achenes are short ~2 mm and hairy with a pappus of bristles. Velvety goldenrod blooms from July through October on dry or drying open prairies and open woods through South Dakota.

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  Asteraceae : Symphyotrichum ciliolatum

  R. Neil Reese

  Symphyotrichum ciliolatum is a perennial herb growing from a rhizome or occasionally from a short caudex and reaching 30-100 cm in height. The stems are mostly smoot toward the base and have short hairs towards the upper regions. The lower leaves are alternat, ovate to lanceolate with some of them contracted near the base forming a distinct petiole. The blade is toothed, 8-15 cm long and 2-6 cm wide and somewhat hairy beneath. The inflorescence is a panicle of a few to many heads, generally < 50 but occasionally more than 100. Each head has an involucre that is 5-7 mm tall with overlapping slender bracts that are yellowish white at the base. There are 15-25 ray flowers with blue-purple ligules 7-12 mm long and about 25 reddish purple disk flowers that slightly exceed the pappus. The fruit are flattened achenes, yellowish colored with minutely plumose bristles 3-6 mm long. Lindley’s aster blooms from July through October on rocky moist soils especially in open wooded areas.

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  Asteraceae : Tanacetum vulgare

  R. Neil Reese

  T

  Tanacetum vulgare is a perennial herb with erect, usually smooth stems arising from a branched rhizome, singly or in clusters growing 50–150 cm tall and branching near the top. The plant is strongly scented and has numerous, alternate, twice pinnately divided, fern-like green leaves. The inflorescence consist of numerous (up to 200) heads in a corymbiform cyme. The heads are disk shaped, hemispheric at maturity, 5-10 mm in diameter and surrounded by an involucre of overlapping bracts. The outer yellow disc flowers are tubular and 3-toothed and the inner corollas are 5-toothed. The achenes are 5-sided with a short crown-like pappus. Tansy blooms in July and August in waste places stream banks and flood plains in the eastern and western edges of South Dakota.