elegant gayfeather

Liatris elegans grows from rounded or turnip-shaped corms, that produce stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall. The upright growing stems generally have soft hairs but sometimes plants have coarse stiff hairs. The basal and cauline leaves have one nerve, and the leaves are long and thin, ranging from 6 to 20+ centimeters long and 3 to 8 millimeters wide. The foliage is mostly hairless but may have some soft hairs, and it is gland-dotted. The leaves are gradually reduced in size as they ascend the stem or abruptly reduced near the middle of the stem; the basal and lower stem leaves typically wither away before flowering. The flowers are in heads with 4 or 5 florets and maybe pink, purplish, white, or yellow in color. The heads are produced in densely packed spike-like terminal inflorescences. The seed are produced in cypselae fruits that are 3.5 to 5 millimeters long with feathery bristles.