This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a pleasant, laid back late season wildflower: Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris).
Camphorweed is a bushy perennial wildflower partial to sandy open habitats and found throughout the southern United States. It loves to grow in fallow fields, abandoned lots, roadsides, and beach dunes. It’s even a plentiful component of our wildflower meadows at the Hutchinson House. Camphorweed grows well where many other plants struggle to survive, making it a welcome addition and burst of color on many an idle acre. The flowers of Camphorweed are about three quarters of an inch in size, yolk-yellow, and with an unremarkable aster-like appearance evenly spaced across the surface of the plant. As its appearance suggests, it is a popular plant among pollinators. Although its flowers are rather run of the mill, the foliage helps define this plant from its peers. The foliage of Camphorweed is a silvery, bluish-green. The leaves themselves are roughly triangular, covered in a fine coat of hair, and, lacking a petiole, cling directly to the stem. Overall the plant has a very coarse, scraggly appearance in my experience. Although, its growth form is quite variable. Most often on Edisto it can be seen as a short bush but it can also grow as a small forb or a tall, organized stalk. As the name suggests, the plant contains camphor oil. Camphor is the compound that gives Vicks VapoRub its signature scent. However, Camphorweed does not contain its namesake chemical in any substantial amount. So the scent is fairly faint.
