BALDWIN'S IRONWEED

Vernonia baldwinii is a robust, upright perennial native to the tallgrass prairies and open woodlands of the central United States, where it colonizes disturbed ground and roadsides with quiet persistence. It grows three to five feet tall, producing flat-topped clusters of small, intensely violet-purple flowers in late summer — a color so saturated it reads almost jewel-like against the dried grasses of the season. Ironweed is particularly valuable to native bees and monarch butterflies during their late-season foraging. It naturalizes readily in meadow plantings and holds its own in difficult, clay-heavy soils where showier plants struggle.