Presented by Meade LeBlanc
March 11, 2024
Botanical name: Verbesina virginica
Common name(s): Frostweed, White Crownbeard, Iceplant, Iceweed, Virginia Crownbeard, others
Family: Asteraceae
[MUSIC—EASY AND FUN]
[Meade] This month’s plant of the month is Frostweed, or Verbesina virginica. Common names for Verbesina virginica include Frostweed, White Crownbeard, Iceplant, Iceweed, Virginia Crownbeard, Indian Tobacco, Richweed, and Squawweed. This plant is part of the aster family.
Why is it called Frostweed? When temperatures go below freezing, the stems exude water that freezes into interesting shapes. And the ice crystals have been given many names as well. Ice ribbons, ice flowers, ice fringes, ice fingers, ice filaments, ice leaves, frost flowers, frost ribbons, frost freaks, frost beards, and frost castles.
The map on the right shows the native distribution — from Pennsylvania to Texas and south to Florida. It’s considered a perennial or a biennial, and a biennual is a plant that takes two years to complete the flowering cycle. Typically, it grows vegetatively the first year and flowers and fruits during the second year. It’s an herb (silent H) or herb (pronounced H), a plant species that lacks woody tissues when mature. It’s also deciduous, meaning the leaves will fall off at the end of the growing season. The size is listed to up to eight feet tall but it’s often shorter. And it’s certainly shorter than that in my yard, reaching about four feet. The leaves are dark green. The flower heads are three to six inches across. The bloom color is white and it blooms from July to December.
There are a couple different ways to propagate Frostweed. The first one is to divide the roots while they’re dormant in winter. The second one is to collect some seeds: Allow the seedheads to dry on the plants and then remove them and collect them. At the bottom right that’s what that photo is. It uses low to medium water and it thrives in part shade and shade. The soil moisture is dry to moist. It’s very easy to grow and it can form sizable colonies with spreading rhizomes. And again, based on my yard, it does tend to spread on its own.
The benefits of Frostweed include attracting butterflies, it’s resistant to deer, it has a special value to native bees, and it’s fun to watch in the winter. If it goes below freezing, be sure and take a look at any Frostweed you have in your yard.
Thank you.
[MUSIC—AND THAT’S IT]
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