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Pictured: Gaillardia aestivalis — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Asteraceae family

Lanceleaf Blanketflower (var. aestivalis) Gaillardia aestivalis var. aestivalis variety

Native Specialist-bee host

Lanceleaf Blanketflower (var. aestivalis) is a perennial wildflower native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Gaillardia aestivalis is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names lanceleaf blanketflower, prairie gaillardia, and sandhills gaillardia. It is native to the south-central and southern United States from Texas east to Florida and north to the Carolinas, Arkansas, and Kansas. There are also reports of historical populations in Missouri and introduced populations in Nebraska. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 7 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~5 caterpillar species

Gaillardia supports ~5 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Gaillardia in North America, including:

Acronicta lanceolaria · Pointed Dagger Moth Chlosyne lacinia · Bordered Patch Eupithecia anticaria · geometer (inchworm) moth Homoeosoma electella · Sunflower Moth Papaipema nebris · Stalk Borer Schinia bina · Bina Flower Moth
+ 2 more species →
Schinia masoni · Gaillardia Flower Moth Schinia volupia · Painted Schinia
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Gaillardia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (12) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[09] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[11] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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