Perennial herb with pubescent stems to 3 ft tall or more.  Leaves alternate, narrow, glabrous.  Flowers rose purple in heads terminating the branches.  Ray florets lacking.  Fruit an achene.

Flowers:  July - October

Habitat:  Sand pine scrub or white sand scrub

Range:  central Florida:  Polk and Highlands Counties

Comment:  Federally endangered and endemic to central Florida

(from Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities, need book by Walter Kinglsey Taylor ISBN o8130-1616-9)

The woods are ablaze with these flowers now.

The buds of the similar Paint Brush (Carphephorus corymbosus)  are just beginning to open.  The inflorescence is a terminal cluster of bright pink, tubular florets.  This plant has numerous alternating leaves on the stem, and the Blazing Star has only the small, narrow “liatris” leaves.

*Information courtesy of The Nature Conservancy, an organization concerned with the preservation of endangered plants and animals.