Packera aurea (Golden Groundsel)



USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

WILD SEED PROJECT IS OFFERING SEEDS, SO THIS SPECIES IS NOT A PRIORITY.

Where Commonly Found: Swamps, wetlands, wet meadows, shores of rivers and lakes, CT, ME, MA, NH, NY, RI, VT.
How to Identify:
(For unfamiliar words: Wikipedia Glossary of Botanical Terms).
Go Botany Key to Packera aurea.
Missouri Botanical Garden website page for Packera aurea.
Flower Type:  Daisy-like, yellow, flat-headed panicle (or corymb), .5″-.75″ across, appear on the stem ends.  The center of numerous gold disk florets are surrounded by 6-16 yellow ray florets.  Flower time is April-May.
Leaf Arrangement: 
A rosette of basal leaves with 2-3 alternate leaves on stalk growing out of the rosette.
Leaf Type:  The rosette of hairless basal leaves measuring 6″-8″ across with leaves 2″-3″ long by 2″ across, that are cordate-orbicular to cordate-oval shape with crenate-dentate along the margins. Their slender petioles as long as the basal leaves.  The few alternate leaves on the flower stalks are smaller than the basal leaves and pinately divided, but not all the way down the central axis.
Height:  .5′-2.5′
Seed Collection:  Harvest seeds in the fall.  May need to monitor to catch before blown away.  Ragworts seeds are, very small, 1 to 1.5 mm long, hairless, with white pappus for wind dispersal (looking a bit like a dandelion seed head).

Attracts:  Bees
Use:  Excellent Tall Ground Cover for Pollinator Garden
Light:  Full Sun to Full Shade
Hardiness Zone:  3 to 8   USDA Zone Map
Soils:  Dry to Wet, Acidic
Notes:  Packera aurea is an excellent naturalizing ground cover for sunny to shady, moist to wet, pollinator gardens, providing early flowering and establishing into large colonies.
Native to the Eastern Midwestern and Southern US:  Biota of North America Program (BONAP) – North America Plant Atlas (NAPA),.

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