Gaillardia aristata
 
Great-Flowered Gaillardia

Upper Plant B

Centre Block, Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park
17-July-2012

Gaillardia: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

juice watery; NOT [juice milky]

NOT [plants with a woody caudex; leaves linear; involucre glandular-glutinous]

NOT [plants glandular-hairy, heavily scented annuals; rays 1-3, inconspicuous]

plants with leafy stems; NOT [plants more or less scapose, cauline leaves none, or few and reduced to bracts]

leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, at least the lower]

flower heads large, usually more than 35 mm across; NOT [flower heads usually less than 35 mm across]

involucral bracts in one or more series, all more or less the same; NOT [involucral bracts of 2 distinct, dissimilar series]

involucre not sticky and gummy

receptacle bristly; NOT [receptacle with chaffy scales between florets], NOT [receptacle naked]

flower heads with both tubular florets and ray florets

ligulate flowers when present pistillate or neuter; NOT [ligulate flowers perfect]

rays mostly yellow, but crimson-purple at base; NOT [rays entirely yellow]

stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

pappus chaffy or of firm awns, or a crown or none; NOT [pappus wholly or partly of capillary bristles, sometimes plumose] (FOA)