Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia: Bright Yellow Flowers Top Tall Stems

Summary: New World native wildflower wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) gladdens landscapes from August to October with bright yellow flowers atop tall stems.

wingstem floral and foliage closeup: Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia) is a New World native perennial enlivening late summer to autumn landscapes with bright, showy yellow flowers that conspicuously top tall stems.

Wingstem’s genus name, Verbesina, references the resemblance of its leaves to those of the verbena genus. Its species name, alternifolia, describes the alternate arrangement of its leaves along stems. Actinomeris alternifolia and Coreopsis alternifolia are acceptable scientific synonyms.

Common names include golden honey plant, wingstem crownbeard and yellow ironweed. The common name of wingstem reflects the plant’s winged stems. Leaf tissue expansions, or wings, with a breadth of 2 millimeters plus (0.078 inches plus), distinctively frame Verbesina alternifolia’s stems.

As a New World native, wingstem claims homelands in Canada and the United States. Canadian nativity occurs only in the east central province of Ontario.

Wingstem is found in the central and eastern continental United States. Nativity sweeps from the Great Plains states of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas eastward to the Atlantic coast.

Wingstem’s native range covers only one-third of New England’s six states. The late bloomer is found natively in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Wingstem does not occur natively in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Wingstem is a low-maintenance plant. Sun requirements range from full sun to partial shade.

As a native of woodland areas, wingstem prefers moist areas in open or rich woodlands as well as in ditches, meadows, roadsides and thickets. Wingstem commonly occurs in alluvial woods, which offer rich environments for growth with fertile, fine-grained, water-deposited soils.

closeup of wingstem's winged stems: botany08, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist

Firm stems grow to heights of 3 to 8 feet (0.91 to 2.43 meters). The Prince William Conservation Alliance reports heights of 13 feet (3.96 meters) in Virginia.

Spread may range from 2 to 6 feet (0.6 to 1.82 meters). Stems are unbranched until near the apex, or top, where flowering occurs.

Uppersides of leaves are darker and duller greens than undersides. Lance-shaped leaves alternate appearances along the erect stem. Leaf lengths may reach almost 10 inches (25 centimeters plus). Much narrower widths measure near, or over, 3 inches (7.62 centimeters).

Their lofty perch atop tall, branched stems makes wingstem’s bright yellow flowers stand out in garden and wild landscapes. Wingstem also garners attention as a late bloomer, with flowering from August to October.

Wingstem exhibits the characteristic composite floral cluster of the daisy family, Asteraceae. Each single flower is actually composed of smaller flowers. The strap-shaped petals of wingstem’s ray flowers surround a central circle of tubular disk florets. Ray flowers, 2 to 8 in number, give a drooping impression with their reflexed shapes.

Rayless occurrences, in which the flower head only displays disk florets, account for the common name of yellow ironweed. Wingstem’s rayless flower heads are reminiscent of the purplish, exclusively disk-shaped flowers found in ironweed (Vernonia spp).

Seeds have prominent wings. Two awns, or bristlelike appendages, appear as horns at the seed’s widest end.

Wingstem spreads by its rhizomatous root system and by seeds. Rhizomes, which are underground stems with propagating potential via roots and shoots, encourage clumping into noticeable colonies.

About half a dozen wingstem plants sparsely, yet showily, dot the field that exuberantly stretches along my yard’s northern border. Their bright yellow flowers have easy visibility as the field’s tallest wildflowers of late summer. Their seemingly random pattern of occurrence, with none in spatial nearness, contributes spikes of colorful height to the field’s floral palette.

American poet Robert Lee Frost noted the ephemeral nature of flowers in his metaphorical, eight-line poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay" (1923). Although wingstem's yellow flowers also do not stay, they still steadfastly brighten the view from my yard for at least three months. Wingstem's gold complements autumn's falling leaves and makes a dramatic exit as one of the year's last wildflowers.

closeup of wingstem's seeds, with awns at widest end and with wing frames: Steve Hurst/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Botany and Mycology Laboratory, Public Domain, via USDA NRCS PLANTS Database

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

wingstem floral and foliage closeup: Fritzflohrreynolds, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Verbesina_alternifolia_-_wingstem.jpg

closeup of wingstem’s winged stem: botany08, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist @ http://www.inaturalist.org/photos/2311783

closeup of wingstem’s seeds, with wings framing seeds and awns as horns at widest end: Steve Hurst/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Botany and Mycology Laboratory, Public Domain, via USDA NRCS PLANTS Database @ http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=veal_004_ahp.tif

For further information:

“Actinomeris alternifolia (Wingstem).” Prairie Moon Nursery > Seeds > Wildflowers (Forbs).
Available @ https://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/actinomeris-alternifolia-wingstem.html

Identify that Plant. “Plant portrait - Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia).” YouTube. April 7, 2013.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRxL6oVVZvo

Kearney, T.H. (Thomas Henry), Jr. December 1893. "Notes on the Flora of Southeastern Kentucky, With a List of the Plants Collected in Harlan and Bell Counties in 1893: 269, 583. Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vol. XX, no. 12: 485.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/703647
Available via Missouri Botanical Garden Library's Botanicus Digital Library @ http://www.botanicus.org/page/703647

Peterson, Roger Tory, and Margaret McKenny. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of Northeastern and North-central North America. Peterson Field Guides. New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968, 1996.

“Taxon: Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton ex Kearney.” USDA Agricultural Research Service Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) > National Plant Germplasm System GRIN Global > Taxonomy.
Available @ https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/taxonomydetail.aspx?41175

Tenaglia, Dan. “Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britt.” Missouri Plants > Yellow flowers, Leaves alternate.
Available @ http://missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Verbesina_alternifolia_page.html

“Verbesina alternifolia.” Missouri Botanical Garden > Plant Finder.
Available @ http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a753

“Verbesina alternifolia Golden Honey Plant.” Encyclopedia of Life > Common Names.
Available @ http://eol.org/pages/819658/names/common_names

"Verbesina alternifolia (L.) Britton ex Kearney." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/2703400

“Verbesina alternifolia (Linnaeus).” Flora of North America > Flora Taxon.
Available @ http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242417423

Whitmeyer, Angelyn. “Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia).” Identify That Plant. April 8, 2013.
Available @ http://identifythatplant.com/wingstem-verbesina-alternifolia/

“Wingstem.” The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden Inc. > Plants.
Available @ http://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/wingstem.html

“Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia.” Prince William Conservation Alliance > Plants.
Available @ http://www.pwconserve

Whitmeyer, Angelyn. “Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia).” Identify That Plant. April 8, 2013.
Available @ http://identifythatplant.com/wingstem-verbesina-alternifolia/

“Wingstem.” The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden Inc. > Plants.
Available @ http://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/wingstem.html

“Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia.” Prince William Conservation Alliance > Plants.
Available @ http://www.pwconserve.org/plants/wingstem.html