Euthamia caroliniana (Carolina Goldentop, Carolina Flat-topped Goldenrod)

Description

This 2′-3′ tall Native Perennial Butterflies is covered with yellow flowers in the fall. Butterflies, moths, long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, beetles, flies, and wasps.  33 different insects including 9 moths feed on the foliage without causing real damage. The abundant insects provide good hunting grounds for mother birds. Birds also feed on the seeds. It spreads by stolons to quickly fill gaps in the garden, but it is shallow-rooted and easy to pull up.  It can grow waist-high, but if you cut the longer stems to the ground periodically, can be kept much shorter. It thrives in full sun to part shade, in wet to dry soils. Often growing in sand dunes and edges of salt marshes, it tolerates salt spray and occasional salt flooding. Deer will browse it occasionally, but not enough to do any damage. Indeed, in most gardens, it can be used as a “deer baffle” to protect more sensitive plantings.  Native to NY, PA, NJ, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, MS, and LA. We propagated our plants from native populations in Beaufort Co., SC.