Camphorweed

The genus Pluchea was named by French botanist Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini in 1817. He selected the name to honor French priest, Noël-Antoine Pluche. Noël-Antoine Pluche published a masterpiece, multivolume natural history known as The Spectacle of Nature. This groundbreaking work was translated into numerous languages, inspiring countless readers to pursue careers in botany and nature during the 18th and 19th centuries.

The common name, Camphorweed, describes the interesting camphor aroma that emanates from its flowers.

The disk flowers of Camphorweed are dusky to light pink and sometimes nearly white. There are no ray flowers (ray flowers form the petals on typical flower heads) as Camphorweed only bears disk flowers.

The flowers of Camphorweed are a beautiful mix of dusky to light pink and occasionally almost white. Unlike many plants in the aster family that bear petal-like ray florets (like the petals on a daisy), Camphorweed is a discoid flower, meaning it only has disk florets. Hence, it lacks the ray florets that form the typical ‘petals’ on many flowering plants.

Pluchea camphorata is an annual or short-lived perennial native plant. Each year, new plants are established from seeds dropped by the previous year’s growth. The leaves are alternate with distinct petioles (leaf stalks), unlike those of the closely related Pluchea odorata, which have very short petioles or are sessile. Squeezing the foliage readily releases a strong camphor aroma produced by glandular secretions on the leaves. The upright stem is generally hairy, though it may become glabrous (smooth) near the base.

The late season flowering of Pluchea camphorata along with its abundant nectar make it a powerhouse pollinator plant. It serves as an important plant for late season insects and a critical one for migratory pollinators needing energy for their travel. A wide range of insects are attracted to Pluchea camphorata including many bees, skippers, wasps, flies and moths. Large carpenter bees and Leafcutter bees are some of the most frequent bee visitors .

Several butterflies and skippers are known to visit these flowers including Pearl crescent, Eastern Tailed-Blue, Gray Hairstreak, Silver spotted skipper, Least skipper and occasionally Monarch and Common Buckeye butterflies.

A diverse group of wasps visit the flowers, attracted by their pungent nectar. While foraging for nectar, they come into contact with the flower heads, thereby contributing to the plant’s pollination.

Camphorweed thrives in diverse moist environments, such as swampy areas, near ponds, lakes, marshes, streambanks, wet prairies, and ditches. It can also be found along roadsides where water collects. However, it does not tolerate dry, arid environments, dense shade, or brackish areas, although it can occasionally tolerate mild coastal salinity, hence its additional common name of saltmarsh fleabane. Unfortunately, our wetlands are in trouble because they have often been drained due to agricultural expansions, urban development, and timber harvesting.

Pluchea camphorata has and overall Secure status on NatureServe. It is found in 24 states and is native from the east coast to Texas and Kansas. While most states within its range display No Status Rank, it is listed as Secure in Kentucky, Virginia and South Carolina. It is Apparently Secure in Florida and North Carolina. Maryland lists it as Imperiled (S2) and Kansas, Ohio and Utah list it as Critically Imperiled (S1).

In Arkansas Pluchea camphorata has a C Value of 3 in the group of 1-3. This indicates “Native weedy and early successional taxa, displaying high opportunistic potential for occupancy of destabilized sites. These taxa are typically well adapted to highly degraded areas of the contemporary environment or to lands that have been heavily altered in the past.”

During the first hard freeze of the year, Pluchea camphorata becomes one of the few native plants capable of developing frost flowers. These intricate ice formations occur when water, drawn up by the roots from the still-warm soil, expands and creates vertical fissures along the freezing stems. As this moisture escapes through the cracks, it freezes instantly upon contact with the cold air, forming delicate, ribbon-like ice sculptures. Enthusiasts must search for them early in the morning following a major freeze, as these fragile structures rapidly melt or sublimate as the sun rises.