I've been taking pictures of these for a while, so I decided to figure out what they were.

As near as I can guess, they are Indian Blanket (Sundance).

It turns out I was wrong (but not too far), this is a Common Blanket (Gaillardia aristata).

Thanks for the ID @Fizgig.



9 comments so far...

Martina Weber plus August 31, 2015, 04:54 AM
a good decision to put the flower in the middle!
mramshaw October 01, 2016, 09:32 PM
Thanks for the favs Martina & @mama_mermaid!
Fizgig June 18, 2017, 12:31 PM
ID = Gaillardia Aristata ↔ Common Blanket Flower.

Wonderful capture!

mramshaw June 18, 2017, 10:53 PM
@Fizgig, thank you so much for the ID.

I've been reading up on it, a type of Sunflower apparently.

And a host to the Blanket Flower Moth (an attractive red one).

Fizgig June 19, 2017, 01:59 AM
Your ID wasn't too far off, actually.... This variety has as one of its common names "Indian Blanket"... The confusion is due largely to the sheer number of synonymous Latin names for the same plant. So for those who insist on only using the scientific names for plants, this is one I like to point to as one of many plants for which that is almost as useful [insert sarcasm] as using its common name.... It actually has fewer common names than scientific ones. Go figure ;)

So, to make a short story long =P you weren't, technically, off on your common naming.

mramshaw June 20, 2017, 09:19 PM
Thanks for the comment, they were both used medicinally by the plains indians so I knew it was 'an' indian blanket, just not 'the' indian blanket (not Sundance either).

I thought maybe I had fallen afoul of political correctness.

Anyhow, your better ID was helpful, my guy is very sunflower-like (especially in the florets [?]).

Sonja June 22, 2017, 04:37 PM
Great shot!
We got a lot of those here growing wild too, cutresy of road maintainance in town that decided the spiffy american prairy mix needs less soil and water than old european curbside stuff.

Amusing about the messy latin of the flower. Of late, it seems really to loose all value to use for international understanding. Recently I tried to pot a correct name on a redpoll and discovered that not only the species was split in two, but also the genus was regrouped and renamed. No more an other carduelis, heavens prevent binominals could be something regular people might actually remember and use without looking up from one encounter document to the next! LOL

mramshaw July 03, 2017, 06:00 PM
@Sonja, the Robin is a different bird on either sides of the Atlantic. Buzzards are problematic too.

While I certainly like the precision of binomials, often the common names have much charm.

For instance, the Pacific Wren (former Winter Wren) is often called a 'mouse-bird' which is actually accurate as it's usually either low-down or on the ground. It does flit from branch to branch but also hops.

Interesting about the road-mix, I think that's how the Purple Loose-Strife menace got started.

Sonja July 04, 2017, 07:14 AM
Yes, there is a "Pacific Wren" now. This is particulary fun, two armchair ticks at once when the species was split not only into an european and an american species, but over seas two of them with me having ticks in so many states. When I started birding, the "Jenny Wren"(British English) or "Winter Wren" (American English) was a bird the continents had in common and just called differently, just as "Great Merganser" and "Goosander" or "Loon"and "Diver".

Of course, things like this just different regional naming exist also in German. Our best and most interesting example is the Bullfinch. Officially "Gimpel" is the official Austrian common name and "Dompfaff" the German, as "Dompfaff" got the critical mass as most used regional casual name in the whole north, but it came in use as protestant slur, linking a wee bird with very potruding crimson tummy and black cap to catholic higher clergy as caricature for gluttony, and it could not be enforced anywhere in the counterreformatory countries where the priest might take exception and preach against school teachers or nature organisations if they use it, so it just was enforced in Bavaria, where in todays mixed saecular society nobody gives a dime any more and the priests got really other issues than catholics that donated for the environment having a bird calendar with a pic described as "Dompfaff" next to the domestic shrine. I bet in Austria it would hardly be different today. But the damage is done. One language, but two names for the same bird. And we got different official words for some plants like Currants and for Cauliflowers as well, just so you may note you are in two different countries ;o)

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