One of the real knockout plants in my garden this year has been…this thing.
I don’t know either.
I bought it at the local botanical garden, under the name “Plowman’s wort.” Okay, fair enough. It’s a native plant, it gets big pink compound flowers, I’m all for it.
I bought it about this time last year, put it in the ground, and of course it immediately went off to dormancy and then I forgot about it, except when I would occasionally trip over the plant tag and go “Oh, right…Plowman’s wort. I remember.”
Sometime last spring, when it occurred to me that the plant had, while my back was turned, grown six feet tall and was wildly visually misplaced, but so damn happy that I hated to move it, I thought that maybe I should read a bit more about my mysterious (and vigorous!) plant.
This was not as easy as I’d hoped.
There’s a European plant called “Ploughmans-wort” which is not this. The -w is critical. And the name “Plowman’s wort” is not particularly common, so I had to dig through various pages on the internet until I found a scientific name and attached other common names to it. My wort was Pluchea camphorata, also known as camphor pluchea. (The originality of the naming there amazes me.)
Having made this discovery, my information about the plant increased…very little.
A member of the Aster family, found across the eastern half of North America, these plants are also known as “camphorweeds” and “fleabanes” and were named after a French naturalist named Noel Antoine Pluche, they are endangered in Ohio and Maryland, and now you know everything I could find on the internet about these plants. Obscure doesn’t even begin to cover it. Nobody sells them, nobody notices them, they mostly show up in databases with the basic information filled out and maybe a couple of dutiful photos taken. Despite being endangered in two states, there seem to be no specific conservation plans. This, right here, may well be the longest article on camphor pluchea easily available on the web once I hit “Publish.”
And this is a shame, because it’s been a fabulous plant in my garden. It shot up six feet, it’s in sort-of well-drained soil, and I have no idea how far the roots go down—have they penetrated the clay? Are they just in the sheet mulch? Who knows? It definitely takes just-about full sun, requires no supplemental watering even in grim and baking weather, and I love it passionately because it is the only tall plant in my garden that really and truly does not require staking. (The giant Joe Pye Weed came to me claiming that it did not need staking. And this is arguably true, because when a perennial is sixteen feet tall, you have moved well beyond staking and into territory defined by girders and flying buttresses. I have never had to use duct tape on a plant before.)
I don’t even know if I can prune it back, or when. I don’t mind it being six feet tall, but it’s in a flower bed of knee-high plants, so it’s a trifle odd at the moment. Theoretically in a few years the Hardy Russian Pomegranate next to it will grow big enough to provide a little visual balance, but at the moment the eye goes “Meadow-beauty, West Texas Sage, thyme, penstemon, penstemon, HELLO GIANT PLUCHEA, prostrate mountain mint, ornamental oregano…” and it is a trifle jarring.
Because I had no information about the plant, I had no idea that the pink flowers would start in late summer and remain small and mostly closed, but that they would last up to frost. While bees aren’t quite sure about this one, pollinating wasps and flies think it’s awesome. I found pollinators on it I didn’t recognize from any other plant. Because I had no information, I had no idea that when I left it standing after frost, the flowers would suddenly explode into powder-puffs.
Floof!
Also because it is so obscure, I have no idea whether or not all those little seedheads are going to scatter all over my yard and become fifty million six-foot giants, leaving me in a scene reminiscent of Day of the Triffids, hacking them down and screaming “Damnit, I knew a giant plant that didn’t need staking was too good to be true!” (Although I kind of expect that if it were a vile weedy beast, it would be somewhat better documented. People talk about weeds.)
At the moment, however, I am still enamored of Plowman’s wort—it is one of the few plants on the property that can genuinely claim to have “winter interest”—and I want to see if I can find it at the botanical garden again, and perhaps try it on the miserable clay soil off to one side of the property.
I cannot tell you where to get this. I wish I could! I don’t even know how to grow the stuff from seed, so I can’t offer to share—does it require cold stratification? Can I just shove a seed in the ground? Do I need to dance naked in the moonlight around the seeds while chanting? Do the seeds need to pass through the digestive system of the rare North American civet cat to bring it to full flavor? But if you do happen to run into the plant, and you’ve got a spot for a hardy six-foot giant, I’d say it’s definitely worth trying out.
And maybe we can get a little more information about it out there.
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About Ursula Vernon
Neat plant, interesting puzzle. The “mystery guest” looks some what closely related to CT’s salt marsh flea bane an annual in the aster family. http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/plucheaodor.html
At SRNP, we’re often trying to propagate local-collected native seeds without a guide so what we do is use a mix of methods and try to follow what nature would do. Here, what I would suggest trying with these seeds: scatter some around the yard, including places with disturbed soil, where the seeds can naturally lodge in tiny cracks. Next, I’d rub some seeds between my hands to try to remove at least part of the fluff and scratch these seeds lightly into the soil with just a thin cover. Third, I’d cut off two small parts of the crown, seeds intact, and place the stems head down on bare soil in a place where they are not likely to get blown away. Also, I’d hedge the bets by sowing some of the second group in a seed tray that I kept in the refrig over the winter and by saving some seeds in a paper envelope in the refrig for spring sowing. Good luck.
Hey, Sue!
Great ideas! I’ll have to give that a try…maybe next year, as it poured rain all night and the seedheads turned to mush, and once I’m sure I won’t have ten million of the things all over the yard. If it doesn’t turn out to be a thug, though, I keep thinking it’s such an awesome plant, it needs to be propagated!
I love it. Reminds me a little bit of cotton. I would sure try it out.
Thanks for sharing.
You can dry the seed heads out and save some in the refrig over the winter in a paper envelope – be good to at least have this insurance.
I am familiar with Pluchea foteda (stinking camphorweed). It looks similar and grows quickly to 4-6 feet and it self-seeds readily all over the garden (even with collecting over half of the seeds!). Stinking camphorweed is said to be used as a deer derterent due to its unpleasant smell when touched or when you put your nose next to the plant. It smells like human B.O. (a sweaty t-shirt after a guy has been playing sports!). The color of the blooms ranges from beige to rosy-pink. I would think your Pluchea will self-seed just a easily!
I meant to write Pluchea foetida – stinking camphorweed.
If you want more height beside this plant you might want to try Pokeweed. They truly don’t need staking.
I’m in Ann Arbor, Mi and have never heard of this plant, but will check it out with my son, Rick Meader, who is a Landscape Architect with a major interest in native plants.
I’m enjoying your site a lot. Thanks for all of your work.
Love pokeweed, and so do the birds. It’s a tough, beautiful plant that stands up to alien competition. The new spears are eaten as a spring tonic in the Southeast.
FYI: according Purdue, the plant contains pre-cancerous chemicals so should not be handled with bare hands in a large quantities and not ingested, so keep it away form the kids.
Ooooh, a plant mystery! I love these
I’d go back to the botanical garden and ask to speak to their propagator. He/she would maybe remember where it came from, how to propagate it, and maybe some other nuggets too. I am so lucky to live across the street from the chief propagator from Morris Arboretum, which is just a few miles away from here. She is my go-to source for information when I don’t know what to do with a particular plant.
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My guess is that if this plant is considered endangered it is not a prolific reseeder. Otherwise it wouldn’t be endangered, right? And I believe that dancing naked by moonlight is the best way to get your seeds to germinate.
do you need a full moon?
What a delightful tale! I have this too – appeared out of nowhere last year. Didn’t get that tall, only about 3.5 feet in Georgia. Foliage is incredibly “aromatic”, shall we say? It is a handsome perennial.
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I love a mystery….such a cool plant…too bad it is not native to NY…I did a quick Google and got that much…
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Hi Ursula — what a fun plant! Thanks for letting us know about it. Saltmarsh Fleabane appeared in my garden this year (similar, but only grows 1.5 to 2′ high) and all I could figure was that the seeds from the one lonely plant came in on the Salt Hay I use as mulch. Salt Hay is a great mulch because it’s made up mostly of Spartina patens, which grows on tidal saltmarshes, so the seeds wouldn’t sow in an upland garden. Saltmarsh Fleabane is a terrific nectar plant for butterflies (and other pollinators) here in South Jersey and I was thrilled to have one pop up in my garden. Can’t imagine a 6′ tall Pluchea.
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We have Pluchea camphorata at Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve in the native plant gardens. I love the way it smells and the way it looks next to Verbesina virginica – frostweed. They support each other well and they are two plants that keep visitors asking questions. Here is a photo of the Verbesina…
http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/al/blog_02/fall_flower_power/
Common name is camphorweed down here and I have a few of its cousins, as that species occurs a little further north from my county: Pluchea odorata, P. foetida, P. baccharis …The odorata gets to be about 4-6 ft. as well. If it is like it’s cousins, the seeds are wind dispersed and in damp locations without too much competition will freely self seed. I nosed around and they say that your species root is “annual”. Also says it “may” hybritize with odorata. The odorata that I had did not return in the same spot.
Don’t let the endangered tag fool you. There are several plants here in Florida which are considered agressive and weedy yet further north they are endangered. And keep in mind that Purple Coneflower is threatened in Florida yet while in NY I had them in spades. Go figure!
Got cramps? Your species apparently has enthobotanical uses:
http://findmeacure.com/2007/10/06/camphor-weed-pluchea-camphorata/
Good luck in monitoring you species. We will expect a full accounting of your observations next year. That is if you have the time after pulling out 50 million seedlings, should that be the case
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Here’s a pic of saltmarsh fleabane I took at the famous Parker River NWR in Newburyport, MA last August. I am going to try and find out more about your variety because you can never be without cool plants that grow in clay soils and boy do I have alot of that here!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12029434 at N06/8570482834/in/photostream