Wildflower Wednesday: Fleischmannia incarnata, Worth A Second Look

Pink thoroughwort, our Wildflower Wednesday star, is struggling in the intense heat but, by golly it hasn't died! 

 

It prefers a moist environment and it's been anything but moist this past month in middle Tennessee. I discovered it in my garden about ten years ago. It looked like  Conoclinium coelestinum/Blue Mistflower, but, the flowers were less numerous and pink, plus it was practically laying on the soil and  blue-mist flower is upright with sturdy red stems. 

 

I'm never surprised to discover a new native plant in this neighborhood or even in my garden. Plants frequently appear, either having gone unnoticed or because conditions were favorable for growth of seeds in the soil seed bank. 

Wildflowers and other Central Basin natives grew with happy abandon in the forested woodland where this garden now stands. In the 1940s and early 1950s a neighborhood was carved from the woodland and houses were built. Homeowners came and went, while the wildflowers grew quietly on the woodland edge. Forty plus years ago, my husband I bought this house and that I fell head over heals in love with the wildflowers that bloomed that first fall and spring. The autumn memory of blue clouds of ex-asters that were covered with bees and butterflies still makes me smile. 

The woodland remnants in my backyard and side yards were where I discovered the beautiful wildflowers that have become my gardening soulmates: False Soloman's Seal, Spring Beauties, Purple phacelia, Rue Anemone, Trout-lily, False Garlic, Blue-eyed Grass, Wild Sweet William, Sweet Betsy, Goldenrods, Blue Mistflower, Frostweed and those many white and blue ex-asters.

Long time readers might remember that I built this garden around those native beauties, so, finding  Fleischmannia incarnata back then was a wonderful addition to the mixture.

source: Alan Cressler

 Fleischmannia incarnata is a North American species of flowering plant in the Asteracea family. It is native to the United States from Florida north as far as Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois, and west to Texas and Oklahoma and even Arizona. It's found growing in moist woodlands, thickets, marshes, and along streambanks. In optimal growing conditions, it can reach 6 feet tall, but, in my garden it's a low branching sprawler. It produces numerous flower heads in a flat-topped array at the ends of the stems, each head has about 20 pink or whitish-pink disk flowers per head. There are no ray flowers.

The leaves are opposite, widely spaced at nodes, and triangular shaped; they remind me of Nepeta. They're softer to the touch than leaves of Blue Mistflower, which is another way to tell them apart.

leaves are described as catnip like!

It has an airy, loose limbed attractiveness and is a good partner for Eupatorium serotinum, both are found in moist shade. It's not unusual to find it sprawling against neighboring plants in a lax fashion. Training it on a trellis might help show off it's pretty flower faces to the world.

Foraging bees are frequent visitors. Skippers hover around it, doing their lovely mating dances. It doesn't appear to be a host plant for butterflies, but, if anyone reading this knows otherwise, please let me know. Birds feed on the dry seed heads, so leave the plant standing over winter.

 

Source

 Here's why I think you should bother to try to locate and grow pink thoroughwort in your garden.

• It's a late season, low maintenance native flower that supports pollinators and birds
• Native to the southeastern United States and west to TX, OK and AZ 
• It thrives naturally in woodland edges, moist thickets, and average garden soils
• Deer resistant
• Fragrant blooms
• Lovely colored flowers 

 The particulars

Botanical name: Fleischmannia incarnata
Common Name: pink slender thoroughwort, pink thoroughwort, pink boneset
Herbaceous perennial
Native Range: In the USA: AL, AR, AZ, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV. May even be found in upper midwest states

source

 

Tennessee Range:

Size: 12 in. - 6 ft. | 30 cm - 1.8 m, low branching growth habit, sprawling. 

Bloom Time: Aug–Dec. depending upon where you garden

Bloom Description:Inflorescence - Flat-topped panicles of heads at branch tips and flower heads with disc florets and no ray florets. Flowers are fragrant.

Best Plant Description: In appearance it is reminiscent of a tall, gangly ageratum with pale pinkish florets and catnip-like leaves.

Sun Light: Shade, Partial to Full Shade

Water: Prefers moist soil

National Wetland Indicator Status: FACU+ FAC

 Maintenance: Low, as long as it is not allowed to dry out.

Propagation Methods: From seed; direct sow outdoors in fall or direct sow after last frost.

Seed Collecting: Allow seedheads to dry on plants; remove and collect seeds.

Comments:Woodlands, thickets, moist soil, roads, ditches, stream banks, bottomlands, swamps, depressions, cedar glades and if your lucky in your garden.

Wildlife value: This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds (seeds). Doesn't appear to be a butterfly host plant, but, it is an excellent nectar source.

Commercially available:  Beaufort, SC nursery, Lone Star Nursery in Austin, Rewild Memphis


xoxogail

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom  and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please share your wildflowers on your favorite social media site. Share to help educate others.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.