Click on any image to open the slideshow
Conoclinium coelestinum
Blue Mistflower
Wild Ageratum
Florida native
A common perennial wildflower of floodplain forests, wet hammocks and pond margins in nearly all of Florida. The range extends throughout the southeastern United States, west into Texas to Nebraska and north to Michigan & New York. An introduced species in Ontario.
Growing up to 100cm (40 in.), but more frequently 30-90cm (1-3 ft.) the stems are covered with short hairs. Leaves are opposite, triangular to heart-shaped, with short petioles 1/4 to 1/2 the blade length. The leaf surface is deeply veined and the margins are toothed (crenate-serate). The inflorescence lacks ray flowers. Thirty-five to seventy blue-purple disk flowers make up each discoid head. These heads are numerous in terminal corymbs, appearing in late spring in south Florida. Blue mistflower blooms through summer and fall in most of its range.
A queen butterfly is pictured here nectaring on blue mistflowers.
The common name wild ageratum comes from the similarity to and confusion with the non-native Ageratum conyzoides (tropical whiteweed). Ageratum has a pappus that lacks bristles, in Conoclinium the pappus has bristles.
Conoclinium coelestinum is a member of the Asteraceae - Aster family.
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: May 20, 2024
