Early Old Man

Here are a couple of pictures of Robin's Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) from the Burford area.  This composite closely resembles a few other rather common fleabane species; Annual Fleabane (Erigeron annuus), Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus) and Philadelphia Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus). 

I tend to see this species in part-sun, usually well-drained soils, and often among a sedge carpet.  In general, oak-hickory woodland or within forest clearings or along trails, but that's just my experience.

Robin's plantain blooms mid-spring to early-summer.  I have a patch (it grows clonally via stolons) in my front garden which consistently gets two bloom periods, one spring and one fall.  As for identifying it, I've always found the dark green wrinkled leaves to be a giveaway, that coupled with the densely wooly flowering stems and perhaps the habitat.  The flowers can vary from white to pink to mauve, but essentially white.  The leaves look kind of like African violet leaves if you've seen those on window sills.

 Fleabane got it's name as it was once believed that it repelled fleas.  Does that mean dogbane repels dogs?  Just looked into it, the dogbane genus, Apocynum translates to 'Away dog' or 'poisonous to dogs'.  The genus Erigeron comes form the latin 'eri' meaning early and 'geron' meaning old man, with the species 'pulchellus' meaning beautiful.  Beautiful, early old man, there you have it.