BALDWINSVILLE — Our early American farmers generally had low regard for native wild flowers because they interfered with pasture and garden growth. Moreover, their cows would eat certain flowers rendering the milk bitter or unusable. In addition, they linked certain flowers to health issues such as sneezing and because they had the option to name a flower you now have a native wildflower called “sneezeweed.” These early farmers also named other flowers as “weeds” and made a concentrated effort to remove them from their farmland.
Native wildflowers are critical for wildlife and human food consumption. Most importantly, they attract pollinators such as bees. Fruit, vegetables and seed-bearing plants with flowers need pollinators to produce product. These attractive perennials also entice birds, mammals and butterflies. Butterflies love native nectar!
Christopher King’s book “Butterfly Gardening with Native Plants” lists the 10 best plants for attracting butterflies. Five of them are labeled weeds. Nine of these 10 natives grow in my garden.
Three perennial natives with my backyard photos and supporting information follow. These include butterfly weed, ironweed and sneezeweed.
Butterfly weed
Asclepius tuberosa
This plant gets its name because of its ability to attract butterflies. King’s book ranks it as no. 3. It is a member of the milkweed family and like all Asclepius members it is the only plant that the monarch butterfly will lay its eggs on. That is, without milkweed there can be no monarch butterflies!
The photo shown includes a monarch butterfly caterpillar feeding on a milkweed leaf; you will note that its coloring is the same as the transformed butterfly.
This beautiful orange flower rounds out my other milkweed growing season blooming in late June through August. It is an ideal plant to mix with your front yard annuals and perennials because it grows to about 18 inches, whereas my other milkweeds reach 3 to 5 feet. Butterfly weed prefers full to partial sun and does well in sandy soil.
Sneezeweed
Helenium autumnale
As a child I suffered from hay fever — an old term meaning late summer allergies — and was told goldenrod was the cause. Similar American folklore exists for sneezeweed.
Actually, the culprit is ragweed pollen that gets into the nasal passages when sneezeweed and goldenrod are in bloom. Ragweed is pollinated by wind; whereas the heavy and sticky sneezeweed and goldenrod pollen grains are too heavy for wind carriage.
Both plants are pollinated by insects and butterflies. Further, goldenrod is essential to the monarch butterfly’s life cycle because it is the major nectar source in its annual trip to Mexico.
Sneezeweed is a member of the aster family (Asteraceae) with bright yellow flowers that grows 3 to 5 feet tall in full to partial sun and under wet to moist conditions.
Ironweed
Vernonia altissima
Ironweed is a late summer bloomer with tall six foot plus stems. Its name is derived from when the bright purple flowers turn to seed leaving a rust-like appearance; hence the name ironweed.
This underutilized plant is ideal for landscaping, buffers, slope retention and for cut flowers. Publications suggests it prefers woodland edges with moist soil and full to half day sun. However, I have several clumps growing in an upland pasture. Besides growing from seeds, I have had good success transplanting first-year seedlings in the fall and dividing young clumps in early spring.
Ironweed is also a great attractor of butterflies. Christopher Kline’s book ranks it as no. 6.
Roger Dahlin is a wildflower gardener and historian in Baldwinsville. To learn more, visit elderberryconsulting.com/roger-dahlins-books/.
