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.
Philadelphia Fleabane is the most common Fleabane in Minnesota. It is a native, erect biennial to perennial growing on green hairy stems from 1/2 to 3 feet high. Stems have fine ridges and usually branch only in the floral array. Stem hair is soft, usually long and spreading.

The leaves are both basal and stem. Basal leaves are a widened lance-shape (obovate), with a rounded tip, the margins have coarse teeth, sharp to rounded, with either sparse fine hair or none on the leaf surface. These may sometimes drop away at flowering time, but are usually present in our area. The stem leaves are alternate, more narrowly lance like with sparse teeth. Those near the top are reduced in size and may have entire margins. Stem leaves are without stalks and clasp the stem or at least have an auricle that clasps. The leaf surface has hair or fine projections resembling hair.

The floral array is a branched cluster atop the stem with 3 to 35 stalked heads, usually more than 9.

Flower heads are composite, 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide and have two types of flowers - an outer ring of 150 to 250 (400) ray florets, 5-10 mm long, that are pistillate only, but fertile, with pale yellow styles. These usually have white rays but they can range into pinkish. The ray florets surround the flat inner disc of numerous disc florets which are bisexual and fertile. The disc florets have tubular yellow corollas that have a five-lobed lip. The five stamens of the disc florets have dark brown anthers which tightly surround the single style; both style and stamens are exserted from the corolla throat when the floret opens. These disc florets open from the outside of the disc toward the center and turn a darker color as they open. Around the outside of the flower head are 2 to 3 series of phyllaries that can be smooth to having fine hair, sometimes minutely glandular. Flower stalks have hair. Open flowers close at night.

Seed: Fertile disc florets produce a dry narrow pyramidal shaped seed (a cypsela) that has a fluffy pappus for dispersion by the wind. If the outer rays florets form seed, they have stiff hair attached, not a fluffy pappus.

Habitat: Philadelphia or Common Fleabane is a biennial/perennial and requires moist soil and full sun to grow best, but it will tolerate a variety of soils and partial shade. Pollination is by butterflies, moths and bees. It can be invasive in certain conditions so if you plant it, watch for excessive seed germination. The biennial grows from a fibrous root system with simple caudices. Perennial plants produce stolons and offsets to form new plants.

Names: 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, philadelphicus, refers to 'of Philadelphia'. The accepted author name of the plant description classification, from 1753 - 'L.' refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

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