Mistflower, Blue mistflower, Wild ageratum, Pink eupatorium, Hardy ageratum, and Blue boneset are just some of the many common names used to identify Conoclinium coelestinum, an eye-catching Florida native wildflower that is also very attractive to pollinators, especially butterflies and moths.
Forked bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum) is an herbaceous to woody annual that bears dainty yet distinctive bluish-purple blooms. Flowers are short-lived, opening only in the morning, but individual plants may produce thousands of flowers throughout a season. It also has a particularly long flowering season, typically beginning in late summer and lasting through late fall.
Corn snakeroot (Eryngium aquaticum) blooms vary in color from rich lavender to a pale cornflower blue. They are globular and are surrounded by spiny bracts. They typically bloom summer through late fall, attracting a variety of pollinators. The common name snakeroot (also known as rattlesnakemaster, both of which are used to describe the Eryngium genus) may have come from its use in Native American culture as a remedy for snakebite.
Also known as Silver-leaved aster, Grass-leaved goldenaster, and Silky golden-aster, Narrowleaf silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia) is a robust perennial with brilliant yellow flowers and silvery leaves. It flowers in late summer through early winter in sandhill, flatwoods and scrub habitats throughout the state.
Narrowleaf yellowtops (Flaveria linerias) is a perennial, low-growing herbaceous shrub that produces many bright yellow flowers that are attractive to a plethora of butterflies, bees and flower beetles. It occurs naturally in Florida’s depression and basin marshes, wet prairies, pine rocklands, hydric hammocks, mangrove swamp and tidal marsh edges, and in disturbed or ruderal areas.
Purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), also known as Maypop, is an herbaceous, perennial vine that produces extraordinarily intricate purple-and-white-fringed flowers resembling something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It occurs naturally in open hammocks, along roadsides and in disturbed areas and is the larval host plant of several butterflies including the gulf fritillary and zebra longwing.