Liatris cylindracea

Liatris cylindracea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Tribe:	Eupatorieae
Genus:	Liatris
Species:	L. cylindracea
Binomial name
Liatris cylindracea Michx.

Liatris cylindracea, also known as barrelhead gayfeather, cylindrical blazing star, or Ontario blazing star, is a plant species in the aster family Asteraceae and genus Liatris. It is native to north eastern and central North America, where it is found in habitats such as prairies, limestone and sandstone outcropings, bluffs, barrens, and glades and dunes. It is also found along roadsides and in sandy pine-oak, wooded northern slope plant communities. It blooms in mid to late summer with purple flower heads.

It grows from rounded or sometimes elongated corms, which produce hairless stems 20–60 centimeters tall. The flowers are in dense heads with 10–35 florets, and the heads lack stems or have stems that are 2–10 millimeters long that orient the heads upward. The heads maybe produced singly or in loose to dense cluster of 2–28. They are arranged in dense spike-like or raceme-like collections. The basal and cauline leaves have three nerves (some might have five), they are long and thin, ranging from 8–25 centimeters long and 2–6 millimeters wide. The foliage is mostly hairless or may have some hairs on the margins (some plants in Kentucky and Missouri are hairy and may indicate hybridization with Liatris hirsuta); the leaves are gradually reduced in size as they ascend near the top of the stem. The seed are produced in cypselae fruits that are 5–7 millimeters long with feathery pappi.