SCIENTIFIC NAME: Vernonia fasciculata
COMMON NAMES: Ironweed, Common Ironweed, Prairie Ironweed, Smooth Ironweed
BLOOM TIME: July, Aug, Sept
PLANT PROFILE:
- Grows 3-6 ft. tall with unbranched green reddish purple stems.
- Late summer into fall displays clusters of flat-topped or dome shaped brilliant purple flowers on stems tops.
- Each flowerhead composed of 10-30 tubular purple flowers.
- ¾ in. flowers have 5 spreading lobes that curve at tips.
- 6 in. leaves are dark green & coarsely toothed.
- Fluffy brown seed heads disperse with wind.
- Habitat: sun to part sun in wet to moist black soil prairies, river bottom prairies, marshes, sloughs along railroads, & edges of fields.
- Can withstand occasional flooding for short periods.
- Common in northern half of Illinois.
- Common English name “Ironweed” derived from the rigid stem.
- Called bear paw (sagedi’tæ) by the Yuchi Nation by root’s resemblance to a bear’s paw.
- Used for Green Corn Ceremonial & associated with harvest of corn & redroot as well as flowering of horsemint.
- Medicinally root is pounded & boiled, using steam in the treatment of pain in the upper or lower leg.
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- Host plant to American Painted Lady butterfly.
- Flowers attract long-tongued bees, butterflies, & skippers. Bees that seek nectar & collect pollen include bee flies & Halictid bees.
- Caterpillars of several moths feed on Ironweed.
- The bitter foliage of Ironweed deters consumption by mammalian herbivores.
- Known as an 'increaser' because it is one of the last plants to be eaten in overgrazed pastures.