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!
Petey can’t get to the mountains, but the mountains come to him. Lucky dude. Monarda menthaefolia or bee balm is a spectacular wildflower. Well...
There are only two species of Lubber Grasshoppers found in southeastern Arizona; the Horse Lubber (Taeniopoda eques) and the Plains Lubber (Brachystola magna). Both...
Growing Plants, Feeling Good After 34 years of growing native plants Petey still gets excited about finding cool plants in the wild and growing...
