FLOWER OF THE WEEK AT SOPCHOPPY DEPOT PARK

Ironweed

By LYNN ARTZ, SANDY TEDDER and DAVID RODDENBERRY

Ironweed (Vernonia angustifolia) is a lovely summer wildflower with flat-topped clusters of showy magenta-purple flowers atop a 3-foot-tall, multi-stemmed plant. The filiform foliage at the base of the plant is striking. With narrower leaves but otherwise similar to the taller giant ironweed (Vernonia gigantea), this species is often called narrow-leaf or tall ironweed. The flowers attract butterflies, moths, wasps, and native bees, including a specialist longhorn bee that forages mainly on Vernonia. Ironweed thrives in full sun in average-to-dry, low-nutrient soil and readily reseeds. It grows in drier pinelands throughout the northern two-thirds of Florida. Ironweed is worth planting in a naturalized landscape, meadow, cottage garden, or at the back of a perennial border. Narrow-leaf ironweed is blooming now in the east meadow and along the front fence at Sopchoppy Depot Park.