I’ve had a couple of people ask me this week about the tall bushes with white feathers that seem to be everywhere right now. These bushes are consumption weed (Baccharis halimifolia). It goes by many other names including groundsel tree, silverling and sea myrtle.
The feather-like flowers are the female flowers (shown above). The male flowers (shown here) are not as showy as the female flowers, and they tend to bloom earlier than the female flowers.
The female flowers are already starting to mature as we head into November. They get fuzzy just like a dandelion, and release their mature seeds with the wind.
Consumption weed is native to the coastal plain of North Carolina, but it has spread considerably here in the Piedmont. It can grow in many harsh environments, and it spreads very quickly. Do you have any consumption weed in your area?