{"title":"Groundsel Bush (Baccharis)","description":"\u003cp\u003eBaccharis is the shrub that turns the coastal marsh edges white in October, when the female plants go to seed and every branch tip fills with silky bristles that catch the light and blow apart in the first hard wind. The common names, groundsel bush and sea myrtle, undersell a plant that is one of the last significant nectar sources of the Southern year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBaccharis halimifolia\u003c\/em\u003e takes salt spray, brackish ground, drought, and poor sandy soil with equal indifference, which is exactly why the plants matter on a coastal lot where little else will establish. The species is dioecious, and the autumn show belongs to the females. One honest caution: \u003cem\u003eBaccharis halimifolia\u003c\/em\u003e seeds freely and has become an invasive pest in parts of Europe and Australia, so site the plants where volunteers are welcome or can be pulled.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"baccharis-halimifolia","title":"Baccharis halimifolia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBaccharis halimifolia\u003c\/em\u003e is a plant of edges and thresholds, growing where the land loosens and blurs into water: salt marsh margins, ditches, tidal creeks, and back dunes. In fall, when most things are shutting down, the groundsel bush erupts into a soft storm of white seed fluff, like a marsh firework frozen mid-explosion. This is the shrub that coastal Louisiana calls manglier, that botanists call groundsel bush or eastern baccharis, and that local healers have quietly trusted for generations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA semi-evergreen shrub of the aster family, with small, gray-green, toothed leaves, native to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the southeastern United States. Tough and salt-tolerant, the groundsel bush is a creature of disturbed, sunny ground, and seeds itself freely enough to colonize old fields, roadsides, and cleared land well inland, so site where the abundant seedlings can be managed. Female plants carry the showy white seed masses in fall, a rich late nectar source for migrating pollinators along the coast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrow groundsel bush in a coastal, wildlife, or rain garden, in sun to part shade, where the salt tolerance and fall display earn a place and the spread can be kept in check. A plant deeply woven into the folk medicine and natural history of the Gulf South.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/baccharis-halimifolia-manglier-story-medicine-and-mystery-along-the-marsh-edge\"\u003eRead the full ethnobotanical story of this plant here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057816309875,"sku":"BACC-HALI-01G","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-284.jpg?v=1720136572"},{"product_id":"baccharis-dioica","title":"Baccharis dioica","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare, semi-evergreen shrub, \u003cem\u003eBaccharis dioica\u003c\/em\u003e resembles the common groundsel bush, \u003cem\u003eBaccharis halimifolia\u003c\/em\u003e, but is quite distinct. In 1979, just before Hurricane Frederic did tremendous damage to the Mobile, Alabama area, we found this plant growing behind the dunes on Dauphin Island.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot recognizing the shrub, we sent material to the recognized authority on the genus at Southern Methodist University, who identified the plant as Baccharis dioica, a Caribbean species new to Alabama. Otherwise known in the United States only from southernmost Florida, where the species is now considered extirpated, this rare broombush has proven winter hardy for years in our South Carolina garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA salt-tolerant, drought-tolerant shrub for a hot, sunny, coastal or seaside garden, where few other shrubs will take the wind and salt. Like the rest of the genus, Baccharis dioica carries male and female flowers on separate plants, the females bearing soft white seed fluff in fall. A botanical rarity and a piece of Gulf Coast natural history for the collector and the coastal gardener.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAdditional photos courtesy of George D. Gann.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057816604787,"sku":"BACC-DIOI-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/BaccharisdioicaGeorgeDGannWoodlanders2.jpg?v=1755116489"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/baccharis.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}