Prairie Plant Profile # 7 - Golden Groundsel

My Golden Groundsel, Packera obovata, is in full bloom right now. Its bright yellow flowers cheer up the garden in early spring when many other plants are still coming out of dormancy.


The clusters of flowers rise on a single stalk 18 inches above the loose rosettes of green leaves. The plants will bloom over a couple of weeks. When the flowers mature and dry they look like little dandelions. I tidy up the plant by removing the flower stalks after the flowers go to seed.


I have never noticed Golden Groundsel to spread by seed. It primarily spreads by underground runners. When not in bloom, it is easy to overlook Golden Groundsel because the rosettes of leaves are just a few inches tall.

Golden Groundsel is drought tolerant and is said to perform well in the shade. I initially planted one under my red oak tree where it did well and spread for a few years. As the tree grew and produced more shade, the Golden Groundsel began to decline.

I moved a few rosettes to the front garden and planted them in nearly full sun where they have thrived. They are growing next to a Possumhaw Holly that will eventually provide some shade.

On warm days, the flowers are buzzing with bees 

and butterflies.


This last picture shows a Golden Groundsel that I transplanted last year. The main plant is on the left and there are smaller plant growing from the roots at a diagonal to the lower left corner of the photo. Also notice how the leaves on the flower stalk change from round to an elongated shape with deep incisions. 

Golden Groundsel is one of those plants you may have to hunt down. I have never seen Golden Groundsel available in nurseries, but it is occasionally sold at native plant sales. 

Prairie Plant Profile #5 - Angel's Trumpet

Last year I removed some of the remaining St. Augustine grass in the narrow side yard between my driveway and the neighbor's fence. I needed a place to store the excess dirt that resulted from my pathway projects. Once I had excavated more dirt than I needed, I put a Free Dirt post on craigslist and the dirt was usually gone within hours. 

It turns out that seeds from other parts of the garden tagged along when I moved dirt to this area. Rock Rose, Clammy Weed, Cowpen Daisy, and Mealycup Sage sprouted in this space. Note to self: write a post on the odd names of native plants. But the volunteer plant that gets the most attention is Datura wrightii, which goes by the common names Angel's Trumpet, Devil's Trumpet, Sacred Datura, Sacred Thorn-Apple, Thorn Apple, and Jimsonweed. I usually refer to the plant as either Datura or Angel's Trumpet, depending on who I am talking to.

What makes this plant special are the large white flowers that open in the evening. This photo was taken at about 7:30 PM when the flowers were about half way open.

I can't recall the last time I intentionally planted Angel's Trumpet in my garden. It reseeds and grows where it wants until I remove the unwanted plants. I allowed three plants to grow in this spot. The seeds for these plants probably came from the plant that was growing nearby in my compost bin for the last couple of years. All it takes is a little sun and a little water to have a massive plant. This mass is about eight feet around. I have had single plants grow as large as these three combined.


When the flowers begin to open, their intoxicating scent fills the air and so do bees.  


The bees like these flowers so much that they will even force themselves into the flowers when they are still tightly closed.


At 8:00 PM the flowers are open a little more and the bees are still buzzing in and out of the flowers. All of the buzzing inspired me to make a short movie.

By the next morning, the fully open flowers are attracting the bees again even though they are a starting to brown and wilt. Within a few hours, the flowers will droop and wither.

Spiny seedpods develop after the flowers fade.

The seedpods split open when they dry and hundreds of seeds fall to the ground. It seems like 100% of the seeds sprout. Earlier this year, I shared some of the many seedlings with a few neighbors. The rest of the seedlings were removed.

The plants sometimes attract leaffooted bugs, Leptoglossus phyllopus. The bugs are more of an annoyance than anything because they may fly out when you approach the plant. They may also be the cause of the spots on these leaves. The leaves of the plants are also a food source for the large caterpillars of hawk moths. I leave the caterpillars alone because they usually do not do much visible damage since the plants grow so fast and because I enjoy watching them return to the flowers as hawk moths.