About Liatris elegans (Walter) Michx.
Liatris elegans (Walter) Michx. grows from rounded or turnip-shaped corms, which produce stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall. These upright stems usually have soft hairs, though some individuals have coarse stiff hairs. Both basal and cauline leaves have a single nerve, and are long and narrow, measuring 6 to over 20 centimeters long and 3 to 8 millimeters wide. Most of the foliage is hairless, but may have some soft hairs, and all foliage is marked with gland dots. Leaves gradually decrease in size as they grow up the stem, or abruptly reduce in size near the middle of the stem; basal and lower stem leaves typically wither before the plant flowers. Flowers grow in heads that contain 4 or 5 florets, and may be pink, purplish, white, or yellow. These flower heads are arranged in densely packed, spike-like terminal inflorescences. Seeds develop inside cypselae fruits that are 3.5 to 5 millimeters long, with feathery bristles. This species grows in dry, sandy soils in prairie and pineland habitats.
