Lithospermum canescens (Hoary Puccoon)
Also known as: | |
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Genus: | Lithospermum |
Family: | Boraginaceae (Borage) |
Life cycle: | perennial |
Origin: | native |
Habitat: | part shade, sun; dry; prairies, rocky open woods, along roads and railroads |
Bloom season: | May - August |
Plant height: | 6 to 18 inches |
Wetland Indicator Status: | none |
MN county distribution (click map to enlarge): | ![]() |
National distribution (click map to enlarge): | ![]() |
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Detailed Information
Flower:
Single, short-stalked flowers in the axils of 1 to 3 arching branches at the top of the stem, giving the appearance of a (more or less) flat cluster at the top of the plant. Flowers are orange-yellow, ½ inch across, tubular with 5 flaring, rounded petal-like lobes. The stamens are hidden inside the slender tube.
The 5 sepals at the base of the tube are narrowly triangular, less than ¼ inch long, and covered in long silky hairs. The flowering branches elongate as the plant matures, with flowers open at the tip and fruit forming below. The leafy bracts at the base of the flowers are more rounded at the tip, typically widest at the tip end, and become progressively smaller as they ascend the branch.
Leaves and stem:
Leaves are up to 2½ inches long and to ½ inch wide, narrowly lance-oblong with a blunt point at the tip and no stalk. Leaf edges are toothless, hairy, the upper surface sparsely hairy, the underside more densely and softly hairy. Stems are multiple from the base (up to 5), covered in long, soft, gray hairs, and usually unbranched except in the flowers.
Fruit: 
Fruit is a small, hard, egg-shaped nutlet, initially gray-brown, becoming bright shiny white when mature.
Notes:
Hoary Puccoon is very similar to Carolina Puccoon (Lithospermum caroliniense), which has larger (1-inch) flowers, the sepals are likewise longer, and the stem hairs shorter, more sparse and more bristly hairy where Hoary Puccoon is softly hairy.
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More photos
Hoary Puccoon plant
Hoary Puccoon plants
elongating 3 branches
plants are where you find them!
spring on the prairie: Hoary Puccoon with Prairie Smoke, Blue-eyed Grass and Pussytoes
Photos by K. Chayka taken in Goodhue County, at Long Lake Regional Park, Ramsey County, and Grey Cloud Dunes SNA, Washington County. Other photos courtesy Peter M. Dziuk.
Comments
Have you seen this plant in Minnesota, or have any other comments about it?
on: 2009-12-12 08:06:29
Both this and the closely related Hairy Puccoon (L. caroliniense) have not gone unnoticed by the horticulture industry. Unfortunately no one has figured out how to propagate it reliably. The plant's deep, strong root system will not tolerate any kind of transplanting and years of study at the UofM St. Paul revealed that, for reasons unknown, viable seed set is rare.
on: 2009-12-12 17:46:06
Dave Crawford told me he tried to grow some from seed collected at Wild River SP. He actually got some sprouts, but they didn't survive more than a couple years.
Some plants have symbiotic relationships with fungi, microbes or other stuff in the soil and can't survive without them. Maybe puccoon is like that, they just haven't figured out what that special thing is yet.
on: 2010-05-27 22:41:55
Just found some in the roadside west outside of Montevideo.
on: 2010-05-31 22:13:16
This is blooming in Wild River State Park right now. Very beautiful
on: 2011-02-02 21:50:50
Marie Sperka's book "Growing Wildflowers" (out of print but available on Amazon.com) says it can be propagated by root cuttings (I haven't tried it but have found her advice in general to be reliable: use roots about the size of a wood pencil; cut into 2" pieces. Cut the top portion of the root straight across and the bottom at an angle---your signal to plant it right side up. Set cuttings in sand or sandy loam about 1" deep and keep slightly moist. These cuttings usually root in one year and some may even bloom the 2nd year. If roots break off while digging, new shoots will develop and another plant will grow from the portion left in the soil. Often several eyes are formed on the stub and a plant with a multiple crown is born.
At our cabin in the sand/pine barrens of WI, they seem to proliferate.
on: 2011-06-29 13:47:38
Blooming or at teh end of its bloom along the entrance road into the park as well as in our restoration area. Cool!
on: 2011-07-27 15:29:42
These were one of my favorite wildflowers growing up. They thrive in our sandy soil and I learned early that they were best appreciated in the ground rather than wilting in a vase. I have always wondered what they were called. I called them little buttercups.
on: 2012-06-16 12:29:30
In the prairie restoration area as you enter the park
on: 2012-07-12 22:05:42
This is fairly common along the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge Wildlife Drive. This year (2012) was a good year for it. It also pops up here and there along the roads on our part of the sand plain. There is no other flower with this same wonderful yellow hue.
on: 2013-06-11 23:14:40
This is blooming profusely right now in the roadsides here. I transplanted some successfully one year. It was growing right in the gravel on the edge of the road and the grader had scraped the shoulders back, slicing under the plant so it was sitting free in a flap of sod. I picked up the piece of sod and took it home. It grew and flowered several years and then simply didn't come up any more. Beautiful plant and very fragrant.
on: 2014-06-07 19:39:11
Many of the dryer ditches have these little gems blooming. A little late this year in June
on: 2014-06-09 15:16:20
Counted three of these in bloom on June 7, all on higher ground near the edge of paths, ridges, etc.
on: 2018-06-17 09:02:02
This is blooming now in Ham Lake Park and Northwoods Preserve in Andover. It is very abundant in the prairie portions of the parks.
on: 2019-04-27 15:41:34
Can I buy this plant anywhere ? Whoary Pucoon ?
on: 2019-04-27 21:27:20
Carolyn, puccoons are not available commercially because no one has successfully propagated them.
on: 2019-05-29 10:15:41
Prairie Restorations now carries #1 pots for purchase...wish me luck!
on: 2019-06-10 16:33:24
Bemidji State Park on the south side roadside where the trail to get to the Bog Walk crosses Birchmont Beach Road.
on: 2019-06-11 19:03:24
In an area I've visited often, this week I saw these for the first time! We called them honeysuckle (which they delightfully smell like!) growing up in NE SD, where they grew all over the hilly prairie during even severe drought years. We especially loved the smell and the taste of the base of the blossoms.
on: 2019-06-20 21:06:24
Have been to Sherburne National Wildlife area twice in the last two weeks (june 2019), the Poccoon is prolific and beautiful against the best crop of Blue Lupine the area has seen! Awe inspiring.
on: 2020-03-31 12:49:18
Anyone familiar with Lithospermum seed predators or seed pests? In collecting seed for my job, I've noticed a lot of plants that have silky webbing spun around the areas where seed is produced, and a lot of seeds that are "hollow". Later in the season these plants seem to wither. Just curious if anyone has info!
on: 2020-05-29 11:10:16
Twomey-Williams Rd., Pine Island State Forest, west of Big Falls.
on: 2020-06-02 10:14:37
Saw in Sibley State Park along the prairie trails this past weekend!
on: 2020-06-08 10:21:03
Saw them for the past 7 years along the power line trail off County RD 36, between Pillager and Baxter. 5 years ago dug up a cluster of roots and transplanted in my flower garden. No problem getting it to grow, didn’t flower the first year but has been flowering and spreading each year since.
on: 2020-06-09 21:31:12
Many growing in our forest land near Menagha, MN. Sandy soil and pine trees.
on: 2020-06-26 09:41:27
These grow on the prairie and up into the foothills of the Turtle Mountains in North Central North Dakota. As a kid they were my favorite flower I would pick for my mom. And contrary to what I've read on some websites, these flowers DO smell--and they smell very nice!
on: 2020-06-30 20:12:09
blazing star gardens carries them, grown from seed
on: 2021-02-15 13:21:15
I harvested a good amount of these in 2020 so some will be available in 2021. I'm sure the USFWS, DNR and TNC will jump on it quick. I am going to try grow a small plot in Estherville soil.
on: 2021-05-29 16:20:50
Found one lone plant blooming on the edge of the mowed yard. West side of Eagle Lake.
on: 2022-06-07 18:41:50
I've got so many of the puccoons at our land. It is dry and sandy soil. We're close to the weaver dunes. It's the year of the puccoons for sure!
on: 2022-06-12 19:09:24
I have Hoary Puccoon in my yard this year. It must have been in a seed mix.
on: 2022-06-12 19:16:12
Ellen, I wish you luck getting it to persist. It is apparently very particular about where it wants to live.
on: 2022-06-14 15:57:16
In full bloom 6-12-22.
on: 2023-06-10 07:27:58
Noticed for the first time this year in a corner of native prairie that used to have the town hall.
on: 2024-03-28 20:43:11
I had both hoary and Carolina puccoon growing in my ditch. They were plentiful. The city was going to tear up the ditch for a trail.I transplanted (not knowing it does not work) all that I could to a different property with same soil conditions. None that I transplanted came up last year.