Plant ID Project: Frostweed, White Crownbeard, Verbesina virginica

Frostweed, Verbesina virginica, or Crownbeard, Virginia Crownbeard, Iceplant.....hello, friend!   Score another point for the plant identification project!
Driving down the highways this time of year, there are huge stands of this plant to be seen here and there.  The opposite bank of our backyard swale is full of these, and pollinators love love love them!  Many thanks to Craig at the Florida Native Wildflowers blog for helping us positively identify this plant.  The ones we see have winged stems.

Here are two really nice links with more information about Verbesina:

Wildflowers of the United States
and
Hawthorn Hill Native Wildflower and Wild Plant Nursery

Similar to the Statice flower that's put in flower arrangements a lot, the stem of the Frostweed has papery "wings" extending down the main stalk.  It also reminds me of the "wings" of the Winged bean pod.  Identifying the flowers was not as difficult as the rest of the plant, since most pictures I found online showed up under the name White Crownbeard and had no wings on the stem, or had leaves that were lance-shaped with no "oak leaf" type look to them (I really need a course in botany...I lack the correct descriptive terms, alas!)

Hooray for learning the name of another familiar wildflower "face"!

And now to knock a few more off the list...the hunt continues :-D

Rosy Camphorweed

Ah...found it!!  This was growing freely in the area we last visited in Charlotte county.  At first they look like "just a weed" and then you notice the fine, frosty-colored down-covered leaves and stems -- the soft mauve clusters of blooms embedded in star shaped settings, their clusters  rich with shadows of magenta.  So easy to walk on by unless you stop to look, and so beautiful upon closer examination.

I will continue my search and see what medicinal uses this plant may have.  There are different types of Camphorweed, also known as Marsh fleabanes and other names, and the different ones have different medicinal uses. At least one type is used interchangeably as an arnica substitute...is that exciting or what! Here are some at this site, though I don't know specifically what the properties of the Pluchea baccaris are.  I need to confirm the ones I saw are exactly the Pluchea baccaris

Yet!

Orange Milkwort

Charlotte county, June 2012.  Not the best picture, but not so bad on a day when the plants were swaying heavily in the wind.  This one was easier to identify.  I'll investigate any known medicinal uses, but nothing much came up on my first few internet searches.  Here's what Green Dean has to say about its kind...

I'm on a quest to slowly and patiently try to identify the native wildflowers I see underfoot in order to be familiar with them (knowing their names would be a great start!) and also to see if there are any known medicinal qualities to them.

But mostly to  marvel at their variety and beauty...

I find this so relaxing, and it's a place where my mind can relax and breathe.  It's no wonder the first place man and God walked together was in a garden.


:-)

Robbyn

Bog Buttons, Hatpins, Pipewort?

Whitehead Bog Button variety of Pipewort, maybe??  Lachnocaulon anceps??

If anyone can help me identify this wildflower, I'd love it!  It is very small and seems to grow in clusters here in wetland edges in southwest Florida.  The stem is long and thin and the blossom is a small globe shape, bright white.

Syngonanathus flavidulus?  If so, this is the Yellow Hatpins variety of Pipewort

I believe this is the same kind of flower, a little closer look.

Thanks for any help you might give me in identification.  These are new to me :-D

~ Robbyn

Update!   I believe the second picture is for sure some variety of pipewort in the Eriocaulon species , such as Syngonanthus flavidulus (Yellow Hatpins), and the first is maybe Lachnocaulon anceps (Whitehead Bog Button)?  I think they are all in the Eriocaulacae family.  Still not sure if they're one and the same...so shall keep on looking.  And next time I'll get a better closeup of the foliage.  Even this helpful page isn't much help unless I have a foliage comparison...

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August 21, 2012 update....Here is a link for the king of Pipewort used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its actions:  http://www.yinyanghouse.com/theory/herbalmedicine/gu_jing_cao_tcm_herbal_database

This might be the one closest in ID to what I saw:   Tenangle Pipewort - Eriocaulon decangulare, http://www.floridasnature.com/florida_herbs_8.htm

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(Note added later...I found out what this is finally!  It's the Coastalplain palafox (Palafoxia integrifolia).  Hooray for online databases!~)

Anyone Know What This One Is?

Note added 06/24/2011 -- found it!!  Hooray for the internet!   My photo is imbalanced in color...the true color is a lighter pink and it is of the Coastalplain palafox (Palafoxia integrifolia), which either come in white or the pinker color (as this one only minus my overzealous use of photo editing enhancement, note to self..)

Rose Gentian, Marsh Pink, Sabatia grandiflora

Hello, beauty!
Clusters of these plants were brightening an overcast and intermittently-rainy day at our stop on an afternoon outing in the countryside.  I love the patterns the wear and tear have made on these petals.

Sabatia grandiflora, rose gentian, or a marsh pink by any other name...one of the first of many wildflowers and plants I hope to identify as time progresses and my camera cooperates.  I found a couple of delightful native Florida wildflower blogs to help me get to know these better:

Treasure Coast Natives

and

Native Florida Wildflowers

Easy identification features:   Jagged yellow central eye rimmed in red, twisted yellow anthers in its male stage.  Found in marshland perimeters, flatwoods and wet prairies.  An annual.  Very little foliage.


What wildflowers are flirting with pollinators in your neck of the woods?

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Additional note as of August 21,2012:  Link on different gentians and their uses -- http://gentian.rutgers.edu/ethno_med_sp.htm