Ratibida columnifera
 
Prairie Coneflower

Middle Leaf Bottom

4 km North-West of Craven, on West Side of Last Mountain Lake
12-Aug-2014

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Ratibida: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
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juice watery; NOT [juice milky]

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

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

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

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

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plants with pinnately divided leaves; NOT [plants with entire, undivided leaves]

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

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receptacle cylindrical and tall; NOT [receptacle flat to hemispherical]

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

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flower heads with both tubular florets and ray florets

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rays 3-7; NOT [rays 8-30]

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

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

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stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

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