Packera aurea – Golden Groundsel

Provides an early spot of cheery golden color in swamps, wetland margins, wet meadows and stream banks. It’s an adaptable plant though and can also be grown in the woodland shade garden. Golden groundsel spreads by rhizomes into a loose groundcover. Most of the height the plant achieves occurs via its flowering stalk – leaves are primarily in a basal rosette. The flowers are attractive to a number of native bees which feed on both pollen and nectar. The foliage is toxic and is generally shunned by deer and rabbits. Golden Groundsel can look a little bedraggled as it goes to seed and can benefit from a shearing back to its basal foliage.