Above: Dense Blazing Star on the shore of Lake Wingra in Wingra Park in Madison, Wisconsin. (7/15/20).
Dense Blazing Star - Liatris spicata (Conservation status: Special Concern)
Dense Blazing Star is a native plant that has deep rose-purple flower heads which are crowded on dense, bottlebrush-like spikes that can be up to 20" long. Flowers generally open top to bottom on the spikes and each rayless flower head resembles a blazing star.
Dense Blazing Star grows between two to four feet tall and blooms July -Sept.
Other names include: Blazing star, gayfeather, prairie gay feather, dense gay-feather, marsh blazing-star, marsh gay-feather, sessile blazing-star, sessile-headed blazing-star.
Above: Dense Blazing Star on the shore of Lake Wingra in Wingra Park in Madison, Wisconsin on July 29, 2019.
For more information on Blazing Star, visit Wikipedia.
Or, visit the Wisconsin Horticulture Division of Extension website page about Blazing Star.
Dense Blazing Star
Liatris spicata
Above: Dense Blazing Star off of Bike Path behind Gregory Street in Madison, Wisconsin on July 16, 2021.
Above: Dense Blazing Star on the shore of Lake Wingra in Wingra Park on July 30, 2019.
Above: Dense Blazing Star on the shore of Lake Wingra in Wingra Park in Madison, Wisconsin on July 29, 2019.
Above: Dense Blazing Star on the shore of Lake Wingra in Wingra Park on August 2, 2020.
Above: Dense Blazing Star specimen collected in Wyoming County on a senic overlook on Hwy 23 (near The House on the Rock) on August 15, 1995.