We're going back to a charming little MO native for this one. You can find a really nice mass planting of this out at the Shaw Nature Reserve's Whitmire Wildflower Garden. It looked great this year, very clean foliage to go with some interesting flowers.
Habit/ID: Grows to a height of about 2 feet, it actually forms basal foliage first and then will send out a flower stalk with smaller alternate leaves on the stem with short petioles. Leaves are variably serrate (to some degree), some look more crenate, some look more dentate. Funny thing about that is that the species name integrifolium indicates that the leaf is entire, ahhh taxonomists and Latin.
Flowers: The inflorescence is a flat(ish) headed cluster of small white flowers. Kind of almost like cauliflower looking clusters really. It does look like an aster flower. The flowers smell nice, but not overpoweringly strong. Has a significant taproot but will also spread a little via rhizomes.
Culture/Use: Plant in full sun, dry to well drained loam soils'll do. The plants at Whitmire actually get some shade but still do quite well. Illinoiswildflowers.info (great site) mentions to plant after frost but before active growth later in the spring. No mention is made of fall planting, which I'm curious about. Plant this with the Liatris pycnostachya or another Liatris. If you can find the right combo I'm sure the purple and white will look great. Best thing is...fairly pest free, good form, and pretty tough once it's established. Did I mention it's native?
Other uses: It's been used by all kinds of people for all kinds of things, look it up, I'm more plant focused today :).
Depending on the performance of a few of my plants this year, I may put this in my own tiny garden soon.
Endangered: There is a fair bit of it here, but it's near extirpation in Minnesota, where agriculture all but wiped it out. The only remaining populations to the south escaped because they were located near rail lines that could be plowed. Now that railroads routinely spray herbicides around tracks, populations have further dwindled. It has been listed as an endangered species in Minnesota since 1984.
Think of biodiversity like a shrinking bubble, I do :/.
Photo from http://www.thehighline.org
Because look how you can use it!
Getting ready to flower
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