Gaillardia pulchella Foug.
Gaillardia, Indian blanket, firewheel, sundance
Firewheel is native to central North America. It is a member of the aster family. The genus Gaillardia is named for an 18th-century French patron of botany, M. Gaillard de Charentonneau.
Plants: 2′ (60 cm). The stem is hairy, and multiply branched.
Leaves: Most of the leaves are near the base, 1½–3″ (4–8 cm) long, with edges that are smooth or sometimes coarsely toothed.
Flowers: Flowers have the distinctive characteristic of firewheels—each petal is red or red-violet at the base, tipped with yellow, with a brownish red central disk, dividing into three lobes at the end. Sometimes the petals are solid orange or yellow. Flowers appear from May to July.
Fruits: A roughly pyramidal achene, with a hairy pappus, ⅛–¼″ (5–8 mm) long.
Habitats: Sandy plains, deserts, roadsides, and vacant lots.
Online References:
8/28/2013 · Pearl Hill State Park, Townsend, Massachusetts · ≈ 3½ × 3″ (9.7 × 8.5 cm) 
8/28/2013 · Pearl Hill State Park, Townsend, Massachusetts · ≈ 5 × 4½″ (12 × 11 cm) 
6/15/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 1½ × 1′ (47 × 41 cm) 
6/26/2012 · By Jacquelyn Boyt 
5/25/2009 · Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Superior, Arizona · ≈ 7 × 4½″ (17 × 11 cm) 
ID is uncertain 
5/25/2009 · Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Superior, Arizona · ≈ 7 × 5″ (17 × 13 cm) 
8/28/2013 · Pearl Hill State Park, Townsend, Massachusetts · ≈ 6 × 7″ (14 × 16 cm) 
4/22/2012 
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin) |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients |
| Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms |
| Class | Magnoliopsida | Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves |
| Subclass | Asteridae | A large class that encompasses asters |
| Order | Asterales | Flowering plants with a central disk flower and surrounding petals, like daisies |
| Family | Asteraceae | The aster family, which also includes daisies and sunflowers; from the Greek ἀστήρ, “star,” for the star-shaped flowers |
| Genus | Gaillardia | After Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate, naturalist and patron of botany |
| Species | pulchella | Derived from the Latin for “beautiful” |
Gaillardia pulchella description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
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