Guest Post 5: a closer look at daisy fleabane

Here’s a closer look at the Erigeron annuus, or eastern daisy fleabane, I saw at Bartholomew’s Cobble near the southwestern corner of Massachusetts on June 29. (I’d originally shown a photograph with a beetle on these flowers, but the insect turned out to be a Japanese beetle, which obviously isn’t native to Massachusetts.)

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Guest Post 4: eastern daisy fleabane

Click for greater clarity.

In central Texas I’m used to seeing—and you’ve already seen—prairie fleabane, Erigeron modestus, which grows individually or in small groups. What a contrast it was, on my trip in the Northeast, to encounter large stands of Erigeron annuus, known as eastern daisy fleabane. Most of the wildflowers I saw in the Northeast that grew in profusion along roadsides were alien, but here, finally, was one that proved to be native in that region. It turns out that Erigeron annuus grows in most American states and Canadian provinces, as you can verify on the clickable map at the USDA website.

I made this photograph on a hot June 29 at the nature preserve called Bartholomew’s Cobble near the southwestern corner of Massachusetts.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman