Squaw Weed Missouri Wildflowers

Squaw Weed blooming in my Missouri hillside garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Squaw Weed Missouri Wildflowers

I finally have a Missouri native wildflower that is taking over a flower bed.

Squaw Weed, or RoundLeaf Groundsel Packera obovata was part of several Missouri native wildflowers I transplanted into my hillside garden a good half a dozen years ago. The 12-15 inch flowers bloom in early spring, the same time as daffodils with tiny yellow, daisy-like flowers.

Squaw Weed flowers are similar to daisies and seed like dandelions. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Easily grown in average, moist, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade, I can attest it blooms well in shade.

Squaw Weed leaves provide a nice ground cover the rest of the year. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Right now my squaw weed patch is growing in rich shade but I have some starts in rocky, sunny soil down my limestone hill.

The friend who identified these Missouri native wildflowers for me warned me that in the right conditions they will naturalize into large colonies by both self-seeding and stolons.I removed the flowering stems when they were done to cut down seed dispersal.

Squaw Weed spreading into a flower bed corner in shade. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Now that flowering is over, the round leaves provide a nice ground cover.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, these natives are valued for its ability to thrive in shady locations, naturalize rapidly and produce a long and profuse spring bloom of bright yellow flowers. It is native to rocky wooded hillsides, open rocky glades, limestone ledges, stream banks and moist meadows from Quebec and Ontario south to Texas and Florida.

In Missouri, it most often is found in the Ozark region in the southern and central part of the State
Genus name honors 20th century North American botanist John G. Packer.

It’s not easy to find perennials that like shade so this one is a keeper if I can keep it from taking over!

Charlotte

Self-Heal Mo Wildflowers

Self Heal is actually a mint and easily grows on my Missouri hillside. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

Self Heal Mo Wildflowers

Self-Heal loves lawns and gravel driveways, or at least my gravel driveway. It attracts bees and butterflies when flowering and is edible. Self-Heal, as the name suggests, was once a sought-after medicinal herb by herbalists and country folk alike.

I met Self-Heal on my Missouri limestone hillside garden a couple of decades ago. I didn’t like walking over it or even weed eating it, so I started to transplant the seedlings to edges of garden beds, where it has nicely established.

Self-Heal grows in many countries around the world and it loves disturbed areas. Habitats include moist to mesic black soil prairies, alongside rivers and lakes, meadows, thickets, forest openings, woodland borders, pastures, and abandoned fields. Self-Heal that is common in lawns is suspected to be a Eurasian variety. This means it is shorter and it has roots at the nodes of the leaves.

According to Edible Wild Food “Self-Heal is edible and medicinal. The leaves and flowers contain high levels of antioxidants (which prevent cancer and heart disease). It has been used for centuries as medicine. Raw self-heal leaves are edible, suitable as a pot herb and have a subtle bitter taste. Although they taste better cooked, a lot of the nutrients are lost (as they are in vegetables as well) in this process. Toss leaves onto a salad, in a soup or stew or once you have mashed potatoes, add them to this. A cold water infusion of freshly chopped (or dried) leaves makes a nourishing drink. (Boil water to make tea as well.) This is a plant that can help many health ailments.”

Here is a patch of Self-Heal I helped to establish along a flower border several years ago. The plants are now mature and grow about 18 inches high.

Here’s one of the self heal bunches along one of my paths. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

As I have said, Self-Heal likes my gravel driveway so I took to the flower bed edges to find Self-Heal starts.

The leaves are easy to identify since they extend above the root on short stems.

These are self heal starts sprouting in my gravel driveway. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

After a rain, Self-Heal starts can be gently pulled out of soft ground to transplant.

Once I have a handful, I use a weed puller to make holes in the new growing area and tuck Self-Heal starts in.

These self heal starts are moving to other parts of my garden. (Photo by Charlotte Ekker Wiggins)

One of my Missouri native wildflowers book says this plant is also called “Heal All.” Who wouldn’t want that sort of help from a garden?

Charlotte