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!
The photos are mine of the Mirabilis longiflora flowers and Manduca sexta, the Carolina sphinx moth and tobacco hornworm. Note the seven streamline white...
Solanaceae is the nightshade family and according to my Hortus Third: A Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada, there...
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