#elephantopus

[faguscarolinensis]

Elephantopus tomentosus / Common Elephant's Foot at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[vandaliatraveler]

Carolina elephant’s foot (Elephantopus carolinianus), also known as leafy elephant’s foot, is an unusual and enchanting perennial herb in the aster family, and a bittersweet find in the waning days of summer. The plant, which can reach a height of three feet, grows in partial shade along mesic to dry woodland borders. Elephant’s foot gets its name from the large, lobed leaves that form in a basal rosette at the base of its stem. The plant’s clustered, lavender flowers, arranged in multiple, five-lobed florets reminiscent of the fingers of outstretched hands, grow at the cusp of three velvety, green bracts. The flowers don’t have true petals or rays, only disk florets. The appearance of the plant’s flowers, which continue to bloom until the first frost, is one of the surest signs of summer’s final days in Appalachia. The photos above were taken along the Mon River Trail.

[cedar-glade]

Elephantopus carolinianus

The first two photographs were from an open woodland cedar glade in Clifty Falls State Park, and the other, along the Sheltowee Trace near a River Crossing in Red River Gorge. Compared to other native Elephant foot, the common species is far larger. It prefers mesic open woods and open Riparian boundaries although it is not an uncommon ditchweed or roadside species living at forest’s edge. In the north its fully cauline appearance gives it away compared to it’s few/ less common relatives with their basal rosettes. 

[faguscarolinensis]

Elephantopus tomentosus / Common Elephant's Foot at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[faguscarolinensis]

Elephantopus tomentosus / Common Elephant's Foot at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[faguscarolinensis]

Elephantopus tomentosus / Common Elephant's Foot at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[vandaliatraveler]

A proliferation of asters in late summer is a sure sign of fall’s impending arrival. And among Appalachia’s many asters, Carolina elephantsfoot (Elephantopus carolinianus) is perhaps the most delicate and graceful. The first time I encountered this dainty perennial herb in the moist open woods along the Mon River Trail I mistook it for a mint, because the plant’s flowers lack a central crown of clustered disk flowers typical of asters and daisies. But elephantsfoot - so named because of the showy, club-like appearance of its basal leaves - is an aster true enough. In late summer, it produces upturned clusters of pale lavender florets, cupped by three triangular bracts, from the ends of branching stems. The flowerheads have a deceptive appearance; they’re composed of multiple individual disk flowers shielded by five-lobed sepals, which are part of the corolla. The flowers have a delicate, fanning appearance and contrast strikingly with the deep green, lanceolate, alternate and slightly toothed foliage of the stalk. Much beloved by bees and an excellent colonizer, elephantsfoot makes an attractive and desirable ornamental for native plant gardens.   

[geoffreyneal]

Elephantopus carolinianus (leafy elephant's-foot) Happily seeding in along a path in our garden. #elephantopus #elephantopuscarolinianus #nativeflora #gffry (at Chatham County, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1CuNvCHLCj/?igshid=dixajm8ch6x9