Packera paupercula

Packera paupercula (Michx.) Á.Löve & D.Löve (Asteraceae; formerly Senecio pauperculus), balsam ragwort or northern meadow groundsel, is a slender perennial herb of eastern and central North America, ranging widely from Newfoundland and Labrador across Canada to British Columbia, south through the northern Great Plains and Great Lakes region, and along the Appalachians to Georgia. Plants arise from a short fibrous-rooted rhizome and produce one to several erect, glabrous to lightly floccose stems 15-60 cm tall. The basal leaves are long-petioled, oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 2-8 cm long with crenate or shallowly toothed margins; the stem leaves are alternate, sessile and pinnately lobed, becoming progressively reduced upward. The inflorescence is an open terminal corymb of a few to many flower heads, each 1.5-2.5 cm across with 8-13 yellow ray florets surrounding a yellow disc. Achenes are small and ribbed with a white pappus of fine bristles. It grows in moist meadows, rocky shores, fens and open woods.