No flower can last forever. Indeed, most seem to last only a few days – or hours! – and leave us wanting for something less transient. The more delicate the bloom, the more ephemeral its beauty – unless the plant is an “everlasting.” Many kinds of flowers are called “everlasting,” including garden and greenhouse plants from all over the world. Even if unrelated, these plants have flowers that hold their form well after drying, so they give the appearance of indefinite preservation. For this reason, they are often used in floral arrangements.
Several wildflowers native to the northeastern United States have earned the “everlasting” title. In this case, they are a group of closely related plants in the aster family (Asteraceae). While they do not immediately resemble the familiar purple or white asters of late summer, these everlastings share the family trait of having numerous small flowers in dense heads (capitula), each cluster surrounded by a layer (or several layers) of leafy bracts known as phyllaries. For these everlastings, the phyllaries are often the showiest parts. They are not green or succulent, as in most other aster relatives, but instead have a dry, papery quality. After the pollen is spent and seeds sent off on the wind, the dense papery phyllaries allow the flower heads to keep their form almost unchanged through winter. Open flower heads devoid of seeds can look a bit like snowflakes, the phyllaries shining in the low winter sun. Plants cut in summer will also keep their shape – and, for some, their fragrance – offering the chance to hold on to a precious bit of the growing season.
Here are three everlasting plants that grow throughout much of our region. The first two are common and widespread, while the third is less common and may provide some insight into the effects of a shifting climate. All three flower in late summer and early fall, their remnants persisting conspicuously through winter.
Pearly Everlasting
Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) is the most dazzling of the bunch. With flower heads as bright as snow, a patch of this plant can draw attention from quite a distance. Up close, the masses of nearly spherical flower heads do indeed look like heaps of pearls held up high on their stems. The flowers themselves are ensconced in a dense involucre of white phyllaries with a satin sheen, but they do peek out: vibrant yellow centers like a golden pupil in a pearly eye.
Unlike the following two species, pearly everlasting is a reliable perennial, growing in the same place year after year. It is also clonal, usually forming stands of many stems, enhancing the dramatic effect when the plants are in bloom. The foliage is generally a dull gray-green due to a layer of fine whitish hairs masking the photosynthesizing leaves. The plant is also prone to powdery mildew, which can make it look rather drab by the end of the growing season. Its leaves are numerous, alternating along the stem but radiating out in all directions, giving the appearance of whorled foliage.
Pearly everlasting is incredibly widespread, occurring across all of North America, except for parts of the Great Plains and southern United States. Like most plants in the aster family, the seeds boast a feathery parachute called a pappus, which carries them on the wind, hopefully toward some new patch of suitable habitat. I see this species most often in powerline corridors and old fields. These sunny spaces, usually dry and kept free of shrubs and trees, can easily be emulated in a garden setting for those wishing to cultivate the species.
Sweet Everlasting
Sweet everlasting’s (Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium) flowers are like yellowed parchment compared to the radiant white of pearly everlasting. But what sweet everlasting lacks in color, it more than makes up for in fragrance. The whole plant is delightfully aromatic, even when dried and withered in winter. People often describe the scent as maple syrupy, but it also has a spicy or herbal dimension, which one of my friends has likened to curry. This olfactory virtue has earned sweet everlasting some positive regard, and some have used the dried plants as a potpourri to keep clothing in drawers and trunks from getting too musty.
Strong fragrance in an herb often means the plant has a chemical defense meant to deter herbivores, yet just as frequently there is an herbivore adapted to deal with those chemicals. Sweet everlasting is a host plant of the American lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis), whose caterpillars can devour entire plants. In my own yard, where sweet everlasting self-sows every year, American lady butterflies find the plants almost as soon as they emerge and lay their eggs on the leaves; the resulting caterpillars often defoliate entire stems. Many species of birds also use fragrant herbs, including sweet everlasting, in their nest-building. Scientists believe this behavior has sanitary benefits, for instance, deterring parasites from the vulnerable nestlings. Prairie warblers (Setophaga discolor) sometimes build nests composed entirely of sweet everlasting stems and foliage.
Generally, sweet everlasting is a rather weedy species, especially on dry, sandy sites. In southern New England, it can form staggering monocultures in highway medians. It typically grows as an annual, or sometimes a short-lived perennial. Leaves are narrow at the base and wider toward the tip. The stem and leaf undersides are covered in a dense layer of fine white hairs. Its foliage is more sparse than pearly everlasting, but some individuals of each species can demand a closer look (or smell) for definitive identification.
A plant of many names, “sweet everlasting” may be the most flattering. Other names, such as “poverty-weed” and “old-field balsam,” speak to its tendency to proliferate on poor soils. And the monikers “lady-never-fade” and “sweet white balsam” allude to its more endearing qualities. Most curious is the name “rabbit tobacco,” a term that might call to mind Beatrix Potter’s bunny characters smoking from tiny rabbit-sized pipes. In the United States, there are various historical anecdotes of people smoking sweet everlasting, but, regrettably, no firsthand accounts of rabbits doing so.
Neglected Everlasting
Also called Macoun’s rabbit tobacco, neglected everlasting (Pseudognaphalium macounii) is a close relative of sweet everlasting and a decided underdog in this group of plants. Less widespread, fickle in its habitat preferences, and easily overlooked due to the preponderance of sweet everlasting, this plant may be hiding in plain sight.
Like sweet everlasting, it grows as an annual or short-lived perennial and has yellowish flower heads. Its leaves, however, are markedly different: lance-shaped and widest at the base, tapering to a long, narrow tip. The leaf bases also continue down along the stem (known as decurrent), a subtle but distinctive trait sufficient to distinguish this species from sweet everlasting. Neglected everlasting has glandular hairs that make the whole plant a bit tacky to the touch. These glands also carry the plant’s fragrance, which is somewhat reminiscent of sweet everlasting, but with a more complex herbal profile.
Neglected everlasting is a disturbance-adapted species. It often grows along logging roads, powerline corridors, and fallow agricultural fields. Whether neglected everlasting is present in the seed bank or blows in from nearby populations (or both) is not clear, but the long return intervals between timber harvesting entries may be a vulnerability for this species in habitats associated with logging activities.
Neglected everlasting occurs in cold-temperate and boreal habitats across northern North America and southward at high elevations all the way to Arizona in the west and the southern Appalachians in the east. Yet this northern affinity may be a liability. There are many old records and herbarium specimens of neglected everlasting from southern New England, but very few current sites remain. I have mostly seen it at higher elevations in the northwestern corner of Massachusetts, which is the last holdout for many northern species in southern New England. As this species dwindles at the southern edge of its range, we are reminded of the grim truth that no flower can ever truly be everlasting.