Gaillardia pulchella
(Indian blanket)

Preferred Common Name

• Indian blanket

Other Scientific Names

• Calonnea pulcherrima Buc'hoz
• Gaillardia bicolor Lam.
• Gaillardia bicolor var. bicolor
• Gaillardia drummondii (Hook.) DC.
• Gaillardia lobata Buckley
• Gaillardia neomexicana A. Nelson
• Gaillardia picta D. Don
• Gaillardia pulchella f. pulchella
• Gaillardia pulchella var. albiflora Cockerell
• Gaillardia pulchella var. drummondii (Hook.) B.L.Turner
• Gaillardia pulchella var. lorenziana Voss
• Gaillardia pulchella var. pulchella
• Gaillardia pulchella var. simplex Voss
• Gaillardia pulchella var. tubulosa Voss
• Gaillardia scabrosa Buckley
• Gaillardia villosa Rydb.
• Galordia alternifolia Raeusch.

International Common Names

• English: annual gaillardia; firewheel; gaillardia; rose-ring blanket; rose-ring gaillardia
• French: gaillarde; gaillarde jolie
• Chinese: tian ren ju

Local Common Names

• Cook Islands: tiare paratane
• Czech Republic: kokarda sli
• Dominican Republic: gallardia
• Japan: ten nin giku

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Asterales
•                         Family: Asteraceae
•                             Genus: Gaillardia
•                                 Species: Gaillardia pulchella

The family Asteraceae is one of the most diverse groups among flowering plants including 1620 genera and about 23,600 species (Stevens, 2012). Species in the Asteraceae are very variable vegetatively, but may be recognized by their “capitulate” and involucrate inflorescences in which numerous small flowers open first on the outside and are infrequently subtended by bracts. The rather small, single-seeded fruits usually have a plumose “pappus” and are frequently dispersed by wind (Stevens, 2012).

The genus Gaillardia includes 15-17 species occurring in North America, Mexico, and South America (mostly Argentina). Some horticultural “Gaillardias” may be derived from hybrids involving species such as G. aristata and G. pulchella. Such horticultural plants sometimes persist after cultivation or occur sporadically in places well beyond the "natural" distribution ranges of the "parent" species; for example scattered and arid localities in Arizona and California (Turner and Whalen, 1975; Barkley et al., 2006). Individuals of G. pulchella from near or on beaches of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, usually with somewhat fleshy leaves and often persisting for more than one year, have been distinguished as G. pulchella var. picta (Barkley et al., 2006). 

G. pulchella is an annual, biennial and sometimes perennial herb, 5–35(–60+) cm. Leaves cauline; petiolar bases 0–3+ cm; blades linear, oblong, or spatulate, 1–5(–12) cm × 4–12(–35) mm, (bases of distal ± clasping) margins usually entire, sometimes toothed or lobed, faces closely strigillose or hirtellous to ± villous (hairs jointed). Peduncles 3–10(–20) cm. Phyllaries 18–28, narrowly triangular- to linear-attenuate, 6–14 mm, usually ciliate with jointed hairs. Receptacular setae 1.5–3 mm. Ray florets usually 8–14, rarely 0; corollas usually reddish to purplish proximally, yellow to orange distally, rarely yellow, reddish, or purplish throughout, 13–30 mm. Disc florets 40–100; corollas yellowish to purple or brown, often bicolored, tubes 0.8–1.2 mm, throats campanulate to urceolate, 3–4 mm, lobes deltate to ovate, often attenuate, 1–3 mm, jointed hairs 0.3 mm. Cypselae obpyramidal, 2–2.5 mm, hairs 1.5–2 mm, inserted at bases and on angles; pappi of 7–8 deltate to lanceolate, aristate scales 4–7 mm (scarious bases 1–2.5 × 0.7–1.3 mm; Barkley et al., 2006). 

The history of introduction of G. pulchella is uncertain. It was probably introduced as an ornamental. For the West Indies, there is only one herbarium collection made in the Dominican Republic (where now it is listed as invasive) in 1945 (US Herbarium Collection). 

Soil drainage

• free

Soil reaction

• alkaline
• neutral

Soil texture

• light
• medium

Special soil tolerances

• saline

G. pulchella spreads by seeds. Each plant has the potential to produce hundreds of seeds which are adapted to wind-dispersal (Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014). 

G. pulchella can invade disturbed areas, pastures, roadsides, forest edges, sand dunes, gardens and arable land, river banks, and sandy river terraces (Webb et al., 1988). Under suitable environmental conditions, this species has the potential to grow forming monospecific stands and consequently altering plant communities by displacing and out-competing native species (Wagner et al., 1999; PIER, 2014). 

• Proved invasive outside its native range
• Abundant in its native range
• Highly adaptable to different environments
• Is a habitat generalist
• Tolerates, or benefits from, cultivation, browsing pressure, mutilation, fire etc
• Pioneering in disturbed areas
• Highly mobile locally
• Benefits from human association (i.e. it is a human commensal)
• Fast growing
• Has high reproductive potential

• Ecosystem change/ habitat alteration
• Modification of successional patterns
• Monoculture formation
• Reduced native biodiversity
• Threat to/ loss of native species

• Competition - shading
• Competition - smothering
• Hybridization
• Rapid growth

• Highly likely to be transported internationally deliberately

In North America, Native American cultures use G. pulchella in traditional medicine. Tea of roots is used to treat gastroenteritis; and chewed powdered root is applied to skin disorders and for sore eyes. It is also believed that this species brings good luck. G. pulchella is also widely cultivated as an ornamental and many horticultural varieties have been created (Barkley et al., 2006; Flora of China Editorial Committee, 2014; USDA-ARS, 2014).