All the “composites,” or members of the sunflower family (or aster family, if you prefer) have their tiny, reduced flowers arranged in compact heads, and each head is called a “capitulum.”
Before the capitulum opens, a series of bracts surrounds it, much like the sepals surround a flower bud before it opens up. When it blooms, the head will thus have this series of bracts all tucked down at the bottom, revealing the tiny flowers above.
Of course, the take-home message of all this is that a single head is not just one flower. It’s several, sometimes a great many. Thus, when you pick a daisy, or a sunflower, you are actually holding about 100 flowers (give or take), not just one flower.
Most composites tend to bloom, as a group, later in the year. Goldenrods, sunflowers, Joe-Pye weeds and asters come to mind quickly as prominent fall-bloomers.
Other members, such as the coneflowers and tickseeds, are at their height during the summer months. And what about everybody’s favorite, ragweed, which is indeed a member of the sunflower family, and which starts to bloom in the summer?
Of course, there are several different kinds of dandelions and dandelion-like species (mostly weeds), and some other, mostly introduced composites that bloom early, such as the charming “Bachelor’s buttons” (Centaurea cyanus), which you sometimes find growing along the railroad tracks and field margins.
Our mystery plant is a native species that is making quite a show.
It is generally found on high ground, often in shady woods, or along river bluffs, and at reasonably high (not always) elevations. In the Southeast, however, you are most likely to see it in full bloom, now, in the mountains.
It is truly a sight to behold in the spring on a mountain hike. I recall prowling through the cool, shady slopes around South Carolina’s own Table Rock Mountain, coming upon large patches of this beauty.
The buds open up, first revealing bright pink ray flowers (the narrow flowers on the outside edge of the head), with golden-yellow disk flowers opening in the interior. The rays commonly become lighter, often changing from pink to pure white.
The plants are softly downy, especially toward the base, and slender runners, or stolons, are usually present. This species is actually common through the eastern half of North America, getting down to the panhandle of Florida — just barely (I know that it grows in Jackson County).
This species make a great addition to the shaded garden. It has been used medicinally, and a rather long-standing tradition maintains that the foliage will keep fleas away. That’s why this species (and its close relatives) have sometimes been used, after drying, for stuffing mattresses.
Hope you won’t have to use it for that, though.
John Nelson is the curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina, in the Department of Biological Sciences. As a public service, the herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, go to www.herbarium.org, call 803-777-8196 or email nelson@sc.edu.
Answer: “Robin’s plantain,” “Fleabane,” Erigeron pulchellus