This week, I’m featuring Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Philadelphia Fleabane was used by a number of American Indian tribes to treat a variety of health problems.  Read more.

The genus name, from Greek eri (“early”) and geron (“old man”), presumably refers to the fact that the plant flowers early and has fine white downy hairs suggesting an old man’s beard.

Identification Tips:

Philadelphia Fleabane is a biennial or short-lived perennial.  The plant grows up to 2½’ tall; it is usually unbranched except near its flowers.  Initially, there is a low rosette of basal leaves that disappears when the plant bolts during the spring.  The central stem and upper stems are light green and covered in spreading hairs, more sparsely hairy at the top of the plant.

Alternate leaves occur along the entire length of these stems, becoming smaller in size and more sparse as they ascend.  These leaves are up to 3¾” long and 1¼” across; they may vary in shape:  ovate, lancelike, oblong-lancelike, or narrowly elliptic.  Around the base of the plant is a rosette of nearly spoon shaped leaves with rounded tips. Basal leaves have coarse rounded teeth at the tip end and are up to 6 inches long, alternately attached but crowded around the stem, and may wither away by flowering time.

As the leaves ascend the stem they clasp the stem, become more widely spaced, and their shape becomes more elliptical with a pointed tip and more pointed teeth.  These leaves average about 4 inches long and about 1 inch wide.  Leaves at the top of the plant near the flowers are much smaller, more heart shaped and toothless.

The central stem terminates in a cluster (panicle) of 3 to 35 flowerheads that is somewhat flat-headed.  In addition, smaller panicles may develop from the axils of upper leaves.  Each daisy-like flowerhead is ½–¾” across, consisting of 100-300 pink to white thread-like ray flowers (petals) and a yellow center disk.  Behind each flowerhead are 2 to 3 rows of narrow light green bracts that are hairless or sparsely hairy, sometimes minutely glandular.  The flower stalk is ¾ to 1 inch long and also hairless or sparsely hairy.  The yellow center with the large number of very fine ray flowers is the best identification distinction between this and similar species of fleabanes.

The flowers close at night so early in the day only the pinkish buds may be seen.

The blooming period occurs from late spring to mid-summer, lasting about 1–1½ months.  The blooms of Philadelphia Fleabane offer either a mild floral fragrance or none at all.  Afterwards, this plant tends to go dormant for the remainder of the summer.

Fertile disc florets produce a dry narrow pyramidal shaped seed (a cypsela) that has a fluffy tuft of hairs (pappus) for dispersion by the wind.  If the outer ray florets form seed, each has stiff hairs attached, not a fluffy pappus.

Folklore:

Its common name, like those of other “-banes,” alludes to the folklore that they have the ability to kill or ward off pests.  Historically, fleabane was burned or dried in sachets to repel fleas, gnats, and flies, though there is little evidence of its effectiveness as an insect repellent.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

There are no known uses of Philadelphia Fleabane for food.

However, several American Indian tribes used this plant for a variety of medicinal uses.  The Cherokee and other tribes used it in the treatment of epilepsy.  The Cherokee and Houma tribes boiled the roots to make a drink for “menstruation troubles” and also to induce miscarriages.  It was also used to treat hemorrhages.  The Catawba used a drink from the plant to treat heart trouble.  Ojibwe used the flowers to make a tea to break fevers.

A tea made from the roots of this plant is astringent, diaphoretic, diuretic and emmenagogue.  A poultice of the plant is used to treat headaches.  The plant was boiled and mixed with tallow to make a balm that could be spread upon sores on the skin.  The disk flowers, pulverized, were snuffed up the nostrils to cause the patient to sneeze and thus loosen a cold in the head.  Also, the smoke from incense made from the plant was inhaled to treat head colds.  It was mixed with other herbs to treat inflammation of the nose and throat.  It was used for as an eye medicine to treat “dimness of sight” and also as an aid for kidneys or the gout.

In his Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Dr. Francis Porcher wrote:

“It is diuretic, without being offensive to the stomach… In great repute as a remedy in calculus and in nephritic diseases. It was a favorite prescription in Philadelphia in dropsy, and Dr. Wista recommends it in hydrothorax complications with gout… Once ounce of the plant to be administered in infusion or decoction of one pint in twenty-four hours.” 

Wildlife Value:

The nectar and pollen of Philadelphia Fleabane flowerheads attract a variety of insects, including Andrenid bees, beetles, Cuckoo bees (Nomada spp.), Eumenine wasps (Ancistrocerus spp. and Stenodynerus spp.), flesh flies (Sarcophaga spp.), Halictid bees, Leafcutting bees, long-tongued bumblebees (like Bombus fervidus and Bombus rufocinctus), masked bees (Hylaeus spp., such as Mesilla Masked Bee (Hylaeus mesillae)), Mason bees (Osmia spp.), plant bugs (Miridae), skippers (Polites spp., such as Peck’s Skipper (Polites peckius)), Small Carpenter Bees (Ceratina spp.), Syrphid flies, Tachinid flies, and thick-headed flies (Conopidae).

Philadelphia Fleabane is the host plant for caterpillars of such moths as the Lynx Flower Moth (Schinia lynx), Northern Metalmark (Calephelis borealis), Speyer’s Cucullia (Cucullia speyeri), and Wavy-lined Emerald (Synchlora aerata).

Groundhogs (AKA Woodchuck) (Marmota monax), rabbits (such as Eastern Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus)) and White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) eat the foliage and flowerheads of these plants.

Where Found Locally:

• 100 Acre Wood
• Anchor Diamond Park at Hawkwood
• Ann Lee Pond Nature and Historic Preserve
• Balsam Way Natural Area
• Bauer Environmental Park
• Community Connector Trail
• Dwaas Kill Nature Preserve
• Fox Preserve
• Garnsey Park
• Hayes Nature Park
• Historic Champlain Canalway Trail
• Mohawk Landing Nature Preserve
• North Woods Nature Preserve
• Settlers Hill Natural Area
• Stillwater Multi-Use Trail
• Summer Hill Natural Area
• Ushers Road State Forest
• Veterans Bike Path
• Veterans Memorial Park
• Vischer Ferry Nature and Historic Preserve
• West Sky Natural Area
• Zim Smith Trail