Piedmont Barbara's Buttons is a flowering herbaceous perennial in the Aster family. This clump-forming plant with flowering stems and basal leaves appears in spring and can reach up to 2 feet tall at maturity. The plant is native to the southeastern piedmont of North Carolina and is usually found in open woodlands and along roadsides throughout the southeast. Piedmont Barbara's Buttons does best in evenly moist to dry, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. It will tolerate some drought once established and most soil types as long as they are well draining. It will self sow in ideal conditions. This plant was selected as the 2009 NC Wildflower of the Year , a program managed by the North Carolina Botanical Garden with some financial support from the Garden Club of North Carolina. It is good for rock gardens and in the front of beds. Diseases, Insect Pests, and Other Plant Problems No known diseases or insect pests.
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day) | Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Soil texture
Clay; Sand; Shallow Rocky
Soil drainage
Good Drainage | Moist
Available space
Less than 12 inches
NC region
Coastal; Piedmont
Growth rate
Medium
Maintenance
Low
Canopy layer
4 - Herbaceous
Form & Appearance
Habit / form
Clumping
Foliage
Broadleaf Evergreen; Deciduous
Leaf color
Green
Leaf type
Simple
Leaf arrangement
Alternate; Rosulate
Leaf shape
Oblong
Hairs present
No
Leaf detail
Long, narrow, veined green leaves form a flat evergreen rosette.
Flower color
White
Flower form
Head
Flower shape
Crown; Dome; Tubular
Flower size
1-3 inches
Flower detail
Dense white flower heads are discoid (only disk flowers with no ray flowers). The numerous, tiny disk florets are compacted into solitary, terminal, pincushion-like, dome-shaped flower heads (1 to 3 inches in diameter) atop long, rigid, slender stems. Blooms from April to May
Bloom time
Spring; Summer
Fruit type
Achene
Fruit detail
Displays from May to June. The fruit is technically a cypsela.
Wildlife & Ecology
Native status
Native
Origin
Southeastern United States
Distribution
Open woodlands and along roadsides from Virginia south to Florida.