Hey everyone, I hope someone can help me understand what this wildflower is doing. It is some kind of native that came up after I cleaned up this portion of my wooded area. Earlier in the summer it bloomed like a black-eyed susan. You can see the spent blooms / seed heads on the plant and you can see a similarly blooming plant in the background. NOW, the new "blooms" are solid green. Can someone tell me why it is doing this? Is it good or bad?
Watch it very closely next year to see if it does the same thing. It looks like it could have a problem called "Aster Yellows" which can affect many members of the aster family. Unfortunately there's no cure and it can be spread to other plants via insect damage. Or, it may be that your plant just had an end-of-season "glitch". It's hard to say for sure.
Here's a helpful link if you want to read up on Aster Yellows http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/IPM.asp?code=138&group=67&level=s
It looks a lot like that picture of the purple coneflowers with the green flowers on your link.
What if I just cut that part of the plant down? Will that keep it from doing it next year, or keep the "aster yellows" from spreading? I am not so attached to the plant, I could just pull it out. This is my year for learning what I have -- native and not -- I have not planted any of it, but would like to keep the natives around if possible.
I think you can get away with that. Just make sure to dip your pruners in rubbing alcohol between cuts to make sure you don't spread it around.
If you have not destroyed the plant please do a search of Echinacea on line.
They have so many new varities on the market A seed could have blown in from a neighbor.
As a Manager and grower of plants at a local Garden center here I have seen so many different colors.I do believe I did
see Green in a catologue.
Yes, there are green cultivars out there (like 'Green Envy' which I own and that's not it) but the petals are usually much more well developed. Also, most cultivars do not come true from seed so the chances of randomly getting a super-cool green one are slim to none. I may be just a lowly Assistant Nursery Manager :) but I have seen Aster Yellows manifest itself that way before and when dealing with this problem I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I agree that it would be unusual for one of the new green cultivars to just pop up in a wooded area like that. And especially if this is the same plant that was blooming normally earlier in the year I think something like aster yellows is more likely.
