Gaillardia pinnatifida, the Hopi blanketflower or red dome blanketflower, is a perennial plant in the family Asteraceae found in northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora)Turner, B. L. 2013. The comps of Mexico. A systematic account of the family Asteraceae (chapter 11: tribe Helenieae). Phytologia Memoirs 16: 1–100 and in the south-central and southwestern United States (from southwestern Kansas south to central Texas and west as far as southern Nevada).Canyon Country Wildflowers, Damian Fagan, 2nd ed., 2012, Morris Bush Publishing, LLC. in cooperation with Canyonlands Natural History Association, Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
Description Gaillardia pinnatifida is a perennial growing to with hairy, wavy to lobed leaves up to long, growing to halfway up the stem, with a solitary flower head on top having 7-12 yellow ray flowers and numerous densely packed orange-brown to purple disk flowers. The ray flowers are three-lobed, often deeply.Flora of North America, Gaillardia pinnatifida Torrey, 1827.
Gaillardia pinnatifida displays considerable variation across its range, so much so that some authors have divided G. pinnatifida into varieties or distinct species. These taxa intergrade with each other, so Flora of North America and the Kew Garden Plant ListThe Plant List, Gaillardia pinnatifida Torr. does not recognise any of these as separate taxa. Many populations in Arizona have unlobed leaves, unlike the deeply divided leaves farther to the north, and populations in Utah have yellow rather than brown or purple disc flowers, as well as gland-dots in the leaves.
Habitat Gaillardia pinnatifida can be found in blackbush scrub, mixed shrub-grasslands, and pinyon–juniper woodland communities.
References
External links Southwest Colorado Wildflowers Plants for a Future U.S. National Park Service, Arches National Park: Hopi Blanketflower—Red dome Blanketflower