Fleabanes

These plants are common in waste places and they often come up in gardens too--many are pulled as weeds. But many of these beautiful daisies are native plants. They are in a family of plants know as composites, and they are characterized by "flowers" that are actually inflorescences. This whole family has specialized in grouping many tiny individual flowers together into an inflorescence that acts to attract pollinators. So when a bee visits a daisy, it actually can pollinate many flowers with one visit! This is apparently a very productive evolutionary strategy because the composite family is wildly successful. 

If you want to be sure which species of fleabane you have, you will need to examine the hairiness of the leaves and how many white ray flowers are in each daisy. Erigeron annosus, pictured at the top left, has in the range of 50-100 or so. As its name implies, this is an annual species that must come from new seed each year. 

Erigeron philadelphicus, shown underneath it, may have more than 300 white or pinkish ray flowers in each head! This one tends to bloom earlier, and it may come back in the same place for a few years. Both of these are what are known as pioneer species; they specialize in disturbed areas, like at the edges of paths or flowerbeds. 

We love to see these along the trail because they have features that make them valuable for pollinators and other animals--a long bloom time and lots of nectar and pollen. They colonize disturbed areas that might otherwise be filled with non-native species that have less value to wildlife. The fleabanes are aggressive enough to compete with some of the invasive non-native species that occur in lots of places. 

They will show up in disturbed areas in your yard too. If you let them go to seed, they may spread a lot, and some gardeners don't like having to pull them out from places where they aren't wanted. Perhaps for that reason, there aren't many places that sell seeds. But if you just take a "wait and see" attitude with unknown sticky-leaved plants that show up in your beds, you will probably have them show up!