Prairie dock in June before it bloomed |
Prairie dock belongs to the Aster (Asteraceae)
family and has clusters of large, sandpapery, spade-shaped basal leaves
up to 16 inches long. The flower heads are in an open cluster at
the top of a smooth, shiny, nearly leafless 2 to 10 foot tall stalk.
Each individually stalked flower head is 2 to 3 inches wide with several
broad, shiny, green, rounded bracts and 12 to 25 yellow, petal-like ray
flowers with notched tips surrounding yellow disk flowers. Prairie
dock is drought-resistant and is a long-lived perennial with a fragrant,
resinous sap.
Prairie dock blooms summer to fall and
is found in deep-soil and loamy prairies in the eastern half of the tallgrass
region, but rare or absent from western Missouri westward.
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| Prairie dock is among the tallest and
largest-leaved of the prairie plants. In open prairies, the leaves
of Prairie dock often orient themselves along a north-south axis to minimize
heat load.
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Additional information about this plant may be found at the USDA PLANTS Database: |
