2. Liatris cylindracea Michx.

L. squarrosa (L.) Michx. var. intermedia (Lindl.) DC.

Pl. 268 g, h; Map 1122

Rootstock a more or less globose corm. Stems 20–60 cm long, glabrous or sparsely hairy toward the base. Basal and adjacent lower stem leaves sessile to short-petiolate, the blades 8–25 cm long, 2–6(–12) mm wide, linear, the margins usually light, hard, and thickened, often curled under, the surfaces glabrous or the undersurface sparsely to moderately pubescent with short, spreading hairs, green, with 3(5) main veins, grading to the shorter stem leaves, these mostly sessile, 2–12 cm long, linear. Inflorescences elongate racemes, the heads loosely spaced (the axis easily visible between heads), sessile or more commonly with stalks 2–35(–65) mm long, these with 1 or few basal bracts. Heads with 10–35 disc florets, the terminal head usually slightly longer than the others. Involucre 11–20 mm long, narrowly cup-shaped to nearly cylindrical, with 5–7 unequal, overlapping series of bracts (the outer series appearing progressively shorter). Involucral bracts broadly ovate-triangular to oblanceolate-oblong, the outer series broadly rounded or narrowed to a sharply pointed, appressed or strongly ascending tip, grading to the inner series with a truncate to abruptly rounded tip, often with an abrupt, minute, sharp point, mostly with narrow, thin, pale to transparent margins, these sometimes slightly to strongly purplish-tinged, entire to minutely irregular and sometimes also with minute, irregular, hairlike processes, the main body appearing flat below the tip. Corollas 12–14 mm long, glabrous or the tube hairy on the inner surface. Pappus bristles plumose. Fruits 5–7 mm long. 2n=20. July–September.

Scattered in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions north locally in the eastern portion of the state to Lewis County (Minnesota to New York south to Kansas, Arkansas, and Alabama; Canada). Glades, ledges and tops of bluffs, openings of dry upland forests, and upland prairies; also pastures and roadsides.

White-flowered individuals (f. bartelii Steyerm.) have not yet been recorded from Missouri. A surprising number of putative hybrids of intermediate morphology with L. squarrosa (apparently mostly with var. hirsuta) have been collected in Missouri. These require further study.