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Daisy Fleabane, Eastern Daisy Fleabane, Annual Fleabane

Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers.

Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

▲▼ seedlings 

▲▼ young plants

▲▼ young plants 

▲▼ young plants 

▲▼ plants initiating flowering stem from basal rosettes 

▲▼ mature, flowering plants 

▲▼ mature, flowering plants  

▲▼ mature, flowering plants  

 

▲▼ closer view of inflorescences, flowers 

 

▲ basal leaves at flowering 

▲ flowering stem and leaves 

 

▲ field of daisy fleabane in southeast Missouri 

Erigeron annuus (L.) Pers., Daisy Fleabane, Eastern Daisy Fleabane, Annual Fleabane:  (Bayer Code:  ERIAN; US Code ERAN)

·         A winter annual, biennial or summer annual native plant that can grow 0.5 to 3.5 feet tall, with hairy leaves and stems

·         Produces spoon-shaped basal leaves in a rosette first; leaves have toothed margins and pointed to round-pointed tips

·         One (sometimes more) flowering stems emerge from the rosette, and these stems have smaller, lanceolate leaves without petioles spaced evenly along their length

·         Flower head inflorescences are produced in open clusters at tips of branches that form atop the flowering stem, usually flowering from mid-spring to early summer (although some plants may be found in flower throughout growing season)

·         Individual heads are about 0.5 to 0.75 inch diameter, with many (50-120) slender (threadlike), white (sometimes pale pinkish or lavender), petal-like ray flowers surround a slightly-mounded center of yellow disk flowers

·          Bracts below inflorescence heads are green, lanceolate, with white hairs, and they form a broad funnel-shaped base below the head

·         Found throughout Midwest in cultivated fields, pastures, rangeland, urban areas, disturbed sites, non-crop areas; can survive mowing in lawns

·         Similar species include:

      o   Rough Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) has narrower leaves, more widely spaced on the stems, rough-textured hairs on leaf undersides and slightly smaller flower heads

      o   Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) has stem leaves that clasp around the stem, and flower heads have pinkish ray flowers

      o   White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum) is also similar, but it is a perennial, is often much-branched throughout the plant, with short, linear to needle-like leaves in upper stem branches, and flower heads arise from leaf axils; individual flower heads have fewer, slightly wider ray (“petal”) flowers, and the disk is raised more to almost spherical, and the color can be yellow to rust-brown or red; white heath aster also flowers in late summer through autumn.  (Other asters, Symphyotrichum spp., differ from fleabanes in their general flower shape as described above)

 

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