Robin's plantain

Erigeron pulchellus, Robin's plantain or poor Robin's plantain, is a soft, hairy perennial herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae) growing up to about 60 cm tall and spreading clonally by short stolons or shallow rhizomes to form loose colonies. The basal rosette of obovate to spatulate leaves persists at flowering; the stem leaves are smaller, alternate, sessile, and clasping. From spring into early summer the slender stems each bear one to nine showy daisy-like heads, each head with up to about 100 narrow ray florets in white, pink, pale blue, or pale lavender surrounding a centre of yellow disc florets. Achenes are flattened and bear a pappus of fine bristles for wind dispersal. The species is native across much of eastern and central North America from Quebec and Ontario south to eastern Texas and the Florida panhandle, where it favours open deciduous woods, roadsides, meadows, and stream banks.