Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

There are a number of species of Fleabanes. They all have numerous rays of various colors surrounding a flat yellow disc. They are either annual, biennial or perennial, and with the number of different species, they can be in flower from late spring to fall. Lesser (or Daisy or Prairie Fleabane) is a native erect annual to biennial, growing from 1 to 3 feet high, with few leaves and short appressed to ascending hairs on the stem. Hair is not standing straight out, except near the base of the stem. The stem usually branches below the floral array. The stem also has shallow vertical ridges. There are four recognized varieties of the species - explained at the bottom of the page.

The leaves are both basal and stem. Basal leaves are spatulate or elliptical in shape, with stalks, while the stem leaves are alternate, more narrow - lance like. Leaves are usually without teeth or lobes on the margin, but the larger lower and mid-stem leaves may have some teeth near the tips; stem leaves are without stalks but do not clasp the stem. The leaf surface can range from smooth to rough from short hair. Stems are sparsely leaved.

The floral array is a loose cluster of stalked flowers atop the stem, usually more than 9 flower heads. Flower stalks have hair.

Flower heads: Each head is 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide with two types of flowers, an outer ring of 50 to 100 ray florets that usually have white rays but can range into pinkish or bluish. These are pistillate only and can be fertile. The central disc is flat with numerous disc florets that have tubular yellow corollas that have a five-lobed tip. The disc florets are bisexual and fertile, have five stamens which tightly surround the single style which is exserted from the corolla tube when in flower. Disc florets open from the outside edge first. The outside of the flower head has 2 to 4 series of phyllaries that can be smooth to having fine hair.

Seed: Fertile disc florets produce a dry seed (a cypsela)  that has a fluffy pappus for dispersion by the wind.

Habitat: Lesser Daisy Fleabane grows from a fibrous root system with simple caudices. Some of the 4 varieties of this species also have rhizomes. It is found in moderately dry sunny places such as fields, roadsides, disturbed sites, in a variety of soils but competes best in poor soils. It is propagated by re-seeding. While this species is an early bloomer, some plants may set additional bloom in the fall. Common in Minnesota and probably in your backyard garden. In scientific description of this plant, there are known intermediates between this species and E. annuus.

Names: The benefits of a single scientific name per species is proven here where the number of common names is large (and I'm not listing all of them above). The genus name, Erigeron, is derived from two Greek words, either eri, meaning 'early' or erio, meaning 'woolly', and geron, meaning 'old man'. Thus a flower that has early flowers and gray to whitish seed heads, which in some species of Erigeron look woolly white like the head of an old man (more notes below). The species name, strigosus, from strigose, refers to having flat-lying hairs. The accepted author names of the plant classification are ‘Muhl’ which refers to Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815) American Botanist who produced several catalogues of plants after retiring as a Lutheran pastor. He was the first to publish but his work was incomplete and was supplemented by ‘Willd.‘ which refers to Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812), German botanist, a founder of the study of the geographic distribution of plants. He was director and curator of the Botanic Garden of Berlin.

Comparisons: For a comparison of the three Fleabanes found in the Garden see this page - Fleabanes.