Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) -- sunflower

Common Name: Columbia goldenweed; large-flowered goldenweed

Species Code: HACA5, PYCAC2

Origin: Native to open grassland and dry pine forests east of the Cascade Mountains of southern British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, extending eastward into Idaho and western Montana.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from a taproot, sometimes also with a caudex; erect, 5-60 cm tall; pubescent to subglabrous overall, especially the stem; stems simple or branched, often curved at the base.

Duration: perennial

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: basal leaves tufted, 5-40 cm long and 5-40 mm wide, toothed to entire, oblanceolate to oval; cauline leaves reduced, becoming sessile (although sometimes stems more leafy).

Mature height: 8-24 inches

Flowers: usually solitary; involucre 15-30 mm high, campanulate to hemispheric, the bracts oblong, imbricate, scarious margined; ray flowers 0-30, inconspicuous if present; disc flowers numerous, 10-14 mm long.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: June, July

Bloom starts on: late June

Bloom ends on: late July

Fruit: achene, elongate, glabrous, flattened, gray; pappus of brownish hairs 10-14 mm long.

Characteristics:
Pyrrocoma carthamoides Hook. is the currently accepted name. The Palouse phase is generally var. carthamoides while var. cusickii is a more southern variety.
H. carthamoides var. erythropappus in St. John 1963 and in Davis 1953, Hoorebekia carthamoides in Piper &Beattie 1914.
Seed predators are common.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
Perennating organ is a taproot or sometimes a branched caudex.
n=6 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, University of British Columbia 2003).
Disc flowers are perfect. Ray flowers are usually lacking.
Diploids only are known.
Fruit is an achene.
Seeds are windborne.

Comments: The rare H. liatriformis seems more common on the Palouse than H. carthamoides, but the range of H. carthamoides is much wider, making it more common overall.
Pyrrocoma carthamoides Hook. var. subsquarrosa (Greene) G. Brown &Keil is a Montana rare plant (S2) but Washington and Idaho are outside its range.

Sun requirement: full

Soil moisture: xeric

Sowing time: fall or spring

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: none required

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: medium

Seed harvest date: August

Seed comments: indeterminate, insect damaged seed is common, seed is windborne

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: upland perennial native forb

Propagation:
Seeds of other Haplopappus species germinate without pretreatment (Young &Young 1986).
Preliminary data indicates that seeds of Palouse ecotypes germinate well without pretreatment.
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Haplopappus carthamoides is not a very attractive garden plant. The bare calyx after the seeds have been shed is more attractive than the flowers. Seed predators are common. Other names include large-flowered goldenweed, Columbia goldenweed, Pyrrocoma carthamoides (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. More Palouse Forbs for Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/More_Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Online at http://www.bcflora.org/ Accessed 9/19/09.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 17 September 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Young, James A., and Cheryl G. Young. 1986. Collecting, Processing and Germinating Seeds of Wildland Plants. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

Links:

Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium