Beach Blanket Flower

(Gaillardia pulchella)

Gabriella de Souza

Introduction

Have you come across a flower with a blend of red and yellow hues while taking a walk on the beach? Gaillardia puchella is a brightly colored flowering plant found growing in soft sands along the coast. The plant gets its common name, Beach Blanket Flower or Indian Blanket Flower, from its dispersion habits; it grows all along the beach and throughout the dunes. Gaillardia is very common in the Wilmington, North Carolina area and can be found on Wrightsville, Carolina, and Kure beaches as well as the Masonboro Island Reserves.

Gaillardia puchella photographs taken by Gabriella de Souza

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae

Subkingdom: Tracheobionta

Superdivision: Spermatophyta

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Subclass: Asteridae

Order : Asterales

Family: Asteraceae

Genus: Gaillardia

Species: pulchella

Niche and Habitat

Within its ecosystem, Gaillardia puchella is considered a primary producer. Its root system provides some shoreline stabilization by holding together the loose sandy soils of the beach. This species thrives in high salinity environments and is also drought tolerant, permitting it to live in beach sand. Beach Blanket Flower is native to the southern and central United States and can be found anywhere from Florida, all along the coast to New York, and as far west as California. It is a shrub and typically grows 1-2 ft in height and the flowers range from 4-6 cm in diameter. In the Wilmington area, these plants can be found growing at Carolina, Wrightsville, and Kure beaches and are seen in great numbers on the Masonboro Island Reserves.

Image by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=GAPU)

Evolutionary History

Members of the plant family Asteraceae are well known for not being too picky about the soils they grow in. The first asters were thought to have come from South America, due to the hot and dry conditions in that region. Being tolerant of high salinity and low nutrient soils allows these plants to flourish in almost any condition. These habitat adaptations make Gaillardia an excellent competitor within an ecosystem, causing them to sometimes outcompete other members of the community.

Environmental Impacts

Beach Blanket Flower is one of the first blooming flowers of summer and is very important to the honeybee population. These plants are purposefully grown to increase bee populations in an area. Their flowers produce high amounts of pollen and their petals act as perfect landing strips for the pollinators, which makes them so attractive to the bees.

Conservation

Gaillardia is planted by the North Carolina Department of Transportation along many highways and city medians. This is primarily done because the plant is a native species, it is aesthetically pleasing, and helps stabilize the honeybee population. This plant is also used in rain gardens and serves as a living shoreline stabilizer. This species is not considered to be endangered and there are no active major conservation efforts.

Friends or Foes?

Beach Blanket Flower is a component in the diets of deer, mice, and many birds such as chickadees, warblers, and titmice. Deer and mice consume the foliage and the birds are attracted to the seeds that are produced after pollination.

Again, this plant is a great friend to the honeybee populations as well as other pollinators like butterflies, moths, and wasps.

Web Resources

USDA National Resources Conservation Service

The USDA provides an excellent standardized online database for mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and angiosperms of the United States of America and its territories.

Florida Native Plant Society

The Florida Native Plant Society is an organization dedicated to the conservation and preservation of native plants within the Florida communities.

Nature's Notebook

Nature's Notebook is a phone application and online site that collects data based on biological observations around the world.

North Carolina Cooperative Extension

The North Carolina Cooperative Extension works alongside the federal, state, and local governments to provide educational opportunities to the citizens of North Carolina and serve to make scientific topics understandable and fun through their programs and partnerships.

Wildflower.org

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is located in Austin Texas and works to inspire the conservation and preservation of native plants through their research, programs, and gardens.

iNaturalist

iNaturalist is a citizen science project that allows users to submit observations right from their phones. You can upload a photo and the application will try and identify the species in the picture. This app is used worldwide and is an excellent resource for plant identification.

Sources

When applicable add your google docs lesson plan here.

Google Sites

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