Fall Festival of Fall Blooming Asteraceae

It’’s true that every year I jump and shout about the fall blooming plants in the Aster family (Asteraceae) and I proclaim that there should be a festival to celebrate these wonderful fall bloomers. It’s a tradition I guess …me getting excited about fall bloomers…I mean the plants, well they do their thing whether I get excited or not.
Anyway, how fun to come across clumps of Gregg’s mistflower out in the desert scrub. What a marvelous plant! Its botanical name used to be Eupatorium greggii and that was fun, because I could jabber about Mithradates VI Eupator, the king of Pontus in northern Anatolia, not to mention the botanist, explorer and plant collector Josiah Gregg. Lucky you the listener that I ran out of time.

Gregg’s mistflower (Conoclinum dissectum) is an amazing butterfly magnet and as I mentioned it’s grown commercially and is no doubt available at your favorite nursery. Very cool!

The photos are mine. I hope they inspire you get out into desert, the foothills or the sky islands this fall. What a season!