''Liatris cokeri'', also known as Coker's gayfeather and sandhills blazing star (a name it shares with '' Liatris pilosa''), is a plant species in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

and genus ''

Liatris ''Liatris'' (), commonly known as gayfeather and blazing star. is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Eupatorieae within the family Asteraceae native to North America (Canada, United States, Mexico and the Bahamas). Some species are used ...

''. It is native to

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, where it is found in habitats such as sand ridges and sandy fields to roadsides; it is also found in turkey-oak and longleaf pine-oak plant communities. It blooms in late summer with purple flower heads. ''Liatris cokeri'' grows from rounded

corm A corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ' ...

s that produce hairless stems, 25 to 85 centimeters (10–34 inches) tall. The flowers are in dense heads, and the heads lack stems or have stems that orient the heads upward. The heads are arranged in dense spike-like or

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

-like collections and the heads tend to face the same direction, especially on reclining branches. Each head has 4–9 disc flowers but no ray flowers The basal and cauline

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

have one nerve each and are lance-linear to linear. The foliage is mostly hairless or may have some hairs on the margins; the leaves are gradually or abruptly reduced in size as they ascend the stem length. The plant flowers in August and October. The seed are produced in cypselae fruits that are 3 to 4+ millimeters long with feathery bristle-like pappi that have minute barbs.

References

cokeri Flora of North Carolina Plants described in 1990 Flora of South Carolina {{Eupatorieae-stub