Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly'

Vernonia lettermannii 'Iron Butterfly' is a well-branched, shorter Ironweed that’s beautiful massed in meadows and mixed borders. Plants can really take the heat, and they tolerate dry soils, too.

Vernonia is a large genus of perennials, shrubs, and trees in the Asteraceae (Aster) family. Originating in the Americas, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australia, they have a long history of use as food and medicine. Of the 30-plus herbaceous perennial species and subspecies native to the American East, Midwest, and Mexico, a few are excellent, ecologically beneficial, garden plants. Commonly called Ironweed, doubtlessly for its strong constitution and rigid stems, native Vernonias grow in some tough conditions. They tower over prairies and wet meadows, inhabit gravel bars in streams, sprout from rocky crevices in drainage areas, and thrive in roadside ditches. Tolerant of both dry conditions and periodic inundation, compact Vernonia cultivars are ideal for planting in low-maintenance rain gardens, meadows, native plant gardens, and perennial borders. Loose, feathery flower clusters packed with vivid magenta or purple, tubular disk florets are late-season pollinator powerhouses; foliage is a larval food source and seeds from rust-colored seedheads provide nourishment for birds.

For information on growing and care, click Growing Guide.