Common Blanketflower; Firewheel; Indian Blanket; Common Blanket Flower; Fire Wheel
Gaillardia pulchella var. pulchella
Found in prairies, other open habitats, disturbed areas. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition What its natural habitat tells you
Not native to Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 18%
- Light
- 4 or more hours of direct sun
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Soil · Life cycle · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 9 Virginia counties.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Who uses this plant?
2CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including VA
Genus host records with ranges including VA · Gaillardia
- Homoeosoma electellaSunflower Moth
- Papaipema nebrisStalk Borer
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
9Specialist beesPollen specialists
Pollen specialists · Gaillardia
- Andrena melliventris
- Diadasia enavata
- Dianthidium curvatum
- Megachile inimica
- Megachile parallela
- Megachile pugnata
- Melissodes tristis
- Perdita coreopsidis
- Protandrena albitarsis
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimPlant details
- Family
- ASTERACEAE
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Conservation status
| Virginia rank | SNR |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| VA status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Native alternatives
Find natives for your gardenSources
- Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications