I’ve been trying for two weeks now to get some up-close, detailed shots of various flowers to write a post about plants currently and formerly classed in the genus Eupatorium.  With blue mistflower it’s fairly easy as there’s a nice clump growing in my garden.  But a skipper and a butterfly just wouldn’t leave the plants alone.  I’m not complaining; it was a good opportunity and a pleasant way to spend time on a lovely afternoon.

Pictured:
blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum; Asteraceae)
a skipper (little glassywing?)
eastern tailed-blue butterfly (Cupido comyntas)

Blue mistflower is a common plant of partly sunny, wet places – you’ll see it frequently close to the banks of the Potomac, where it blooms from mid to late summer (at least). It can be found from Florida north to New York, east to Texas, and from there north to Nebraska.  It’s a nice native alternative to the similar-looking common garden plants known as ageratum, about which a plantsman at a botanic garden where I used to volunteer would always roll his eyes; he called them “droopy Maryland swamp plants”.  Don’t know where he got “droopy” from.  Anyway, they are growing so vigorously in my evergreen garden – which isn’t particularly wet – that I’m a bit worried they’ll become weeds.