Frostweed

Verbesina virginica, commonly called frostweed or white crownbeard, is an erect perennial herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the southeastern and south-central United States and adjacent northeastern Mexico. It typically grows 1–2 m tall from a stout, woody base, with conspicuously winged, pubescent stems — narrow, leaf-like flanges run continuously down the stem from the bases of the leaves. The alternate leaves are ovate to lanceolate, 8–25 cm long, with coarsely toothed margins, an acute tip, and a tapered, decurrent base. Numerous small white flower heads, each 1–2 cm across, are gathered in dense, flat-topped, terminal corymbs in late summer and autumn; each head has 1–5 short white ray florets surrounding a small cluster of cream-coloured disc florets. The achenes are flattened, winged, and tipped with two slender awns. The plant is famous for the spectacular ribbon-like 'frost flowers' it produces in late autumn, when sap freezing within the stems splits the bark and extrudes thin curls of ice. It favours moist, partly shaded woodlands and stream banks.