Ageratum houstonianum Mill.

Blue Mink

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Floss Flower is an introduced annual in the Aster family (Asteraceae). It is native to Mexico and Central America. Floss Flower is sometimes cultivated and is often a weed in nursery stock. It can be found occasionally as an escape or weed in plant nurseries, in landscaped areas, and around disturbed urban areas such as parking lots or drainage ditches. Floss Flower is a fibrous rooted annual growing from 1-3 feet in height. Stems are erect or decumbent and much branched. The stems are pubescent with long hairs. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to deltate in outline, with rounded teeth along the margins. The leaves are densely pubescent and the petioles are pubescent and glandular with stalked glands. Flowers are produced in heads arranged in corymbs. The phyllaries are pubescent and glandular with stalked glands. The heads contain only disc flowers which are pale blue or rarely white in color. The fruit is an achene with a crown of five distinct, oblong scales. Plants are somewhat similar to our native Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum (Linnaeus) de Candolle), which is also sometimes called “Wild Ageratum”. Conoclinium is a perennial, the pappus consists of barbellate bristles, and the stems are pubescent with short hairs.--A. Diamond

This species was first collected in Alabama by A. Diamond in 2013.

Not Native

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