Jackson-Frazier Microseris

Hello,

I went to Jackson-Frazier Wetland early this morning and was surprised at how many Cut-leaf Microseris (Microseris laciniata ssp. laciniata, a.k.a. Cutleaf Silverpuffs) there were. It's a native although easily overlooked among many introduced "weedy" flowers that look similar at a glance. It's the only one in the genis found in the Willamette Valley. It's notable due to the large blossoms and its board-scaled phyllaries (the "head, below the petals).

There are some scattered in the field west of the J-F parking area, or "Lancaster Natural Area." But on the west end of the boardwalk where there's a wet prairie, there are thousands blooming right now. I've never encountered so many of this species. Obviously they were planted with other natives during restoration efforts in recent years.

Don Boucher

Hi Don 

I have been working on this (or more probable - these) species for years. There are very confounding characters that make a positive ID difficult. 

The biggest issue I have with these gorgeous plants is that these meter-high, nodding head, purple splotched involucre, with deeply notched strap leaves have been creeping north in the valley since I found my first population in the Coyote Unit of Fern Ridge in the late 1990s.  There were several along a dike at that time and I did not see the species again until it showed up in the Royal Ave area near the big barn in 2017 (a very robust population). Last year they appeared in the native meadow south of the deck off Finley Rd - again a substantial number of individuals.

These areas are not experiencing any restoration efforts that I am aware of - this natural expansion of range is phenomenal along with the difficulties of determining their definite taxonomy.

Microseris laciniata leptosepala from Benton County, OR, USA on June 14, 2019 at 10:35 PM by Howard Bruner · iNaturalist

Cutleaf Silverpuffs from Lane County, OR, USA on June 26, 2017 at 09:51 AM by Howard Bruner. This population of M. laciniata has some characters of M. nigrescens: the purplish involucre spot... · iNaturalist

From: mid-vall...@googlegroups.com <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Don Boucher <donab...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2023 3:44 PM
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Subject: [MidValleyNature:7141] Jackson-Frazier Microseris

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The structure and nomenclature of composite flowers bewilders me and I had to spend some time puzzling it all out, especially the pappus, so I’m sharing what I learned with y’all. 

Looking at this picture of mature fruits (its a different subspecies but same structure) helped me understand what I was reading about. 

At Jackson-Frazier, I'm pretty sure that those plants were actually seeded as part of the restoration, after a couple of years of herbicide treatment.  I was hoping to find a list of species they sowed there, but haven't had any luck finding one.  However, I did find the native seed catalog from Heritage Seedlings, where I learned that you can purchase a whole pound of Microseris seed.  It was interesting that someone is growing this species for restoration purposes.  One pound costs $170 and averages 316,753 seeds! 

Lisa Millbank