Category: Composite Flower

Gorgeous Wingstem

September 2, 2025

I have so many favorites in the world of nature. This is one of them. Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), seen here in Shenandoah National Park. Right now it is decorating roadsides with its brilliant lemon yellow.

Wingstem is quite popular with pollinators. This is a Common Eastern Bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) enjoying the Wingstem’s nectar.

The flowers of this plant are composite flowers which are made up of a cluster of tiny flowers called florets that together create a bigger form that appears to be a single bloom. The little florets include ray flowers on the outside appearing to be petals, and also disk flowers at the center. Other composite flowers include daisies and sunflowers.

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Wingstem

A lovely expanse of Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), a member of the Asteraceae or Aster family.

Wingstem can easily grow to 8 feet tall. A plant that is native to eastern and central North America.

The bloom is a composite flower, each looks like a single flower but consists of a bunch of small individual flowers – disk flowers and ray flowers. The petals you see are actually ray flowers and in the center are disk flowers. The ray flowers fascinate me with their double-curlycue stigmas which are the surfaces that capture pollen.

Wingstems attract many pollinators – bees, butterflies, skippers, wasps, and flies. The butterfly above, is a Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas) that has had a rough time in its 3 to 6 day life span.

What an intriguing bunch of blooms and OH! That brilliant yellow! Absolutely gorgeous!

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Philadelphia Fleabane

Small daisy like flowers. Perfect for a party for fairies that are surely celebrating spring right about now. Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) is blooming in lovely bunches along the roadside coming up my mountain.

This Fleabane is a biennial or short-lived perennial. Perhaps a bit tall for fairies, it’s nine to thirty inches tall. Its composite flowers are made up of yellow disk flowers and outer ray flowers that can be white, pink, as in this photo, or lavender. Philadelphia Fleabane leaves are alternate. And those leaves clasp the stems, which distinguishes this species from all the other Fleabane species. How many Fleabane species are there? One hundred seventy species in North America, and three hundred ninety species world wide. That’s a bunch!