Canada goldenrod

A large, hairy, clump-forming North American native perennial of wet meadows, low woods, stream banks, and prairies. Its most distinctive feature is the perfoliate foliage - pairs of wrinkled, opposite, lance-shaped leaves whose bases fuse around the hairy stem, so the stem appears to pass through the leaf. From July to September, flat-topped clusters of small, fluffy white flowers feed a wide range of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, while all parts of the plant are toxic and bitter.

A native upright perennial of east-central NA wet meadows producing dense purple flower spikes that bloom top-down in late summer - among the most reliable monarch-migration nectar plants in the eastern flora. NC State documents goldfinches feeding on the seeds with enthusiasm, plus two specialist moth larvae (Liatris flower moth Schinia sanguinea and Liatris borer moth Carmenta anthracipennis). Native stem-nesting bees use the dead winter stems.

A tall, clump-forming native legume of eastern North America grown for showy mid- to late-summer clusters of gold-yellow flowers accented by dark, curving anthers. The pinnately compound leaves carry a club-shaped gland on the petiole, and the long-lived plants reach 4 to 6 feet. Bumblebees work the pollen-only flowers, hummingbirds visit, and the seeds feed birds including bobwhites.

An upright, clump-forming perennial of the mint family native to the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and into central Canada, named for its anise-scented foliage. From June through September it carries dense terminal spikes of lavender-to-purple two-lipped flowers above square stems and opposite, toothed leaves. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as a nectar source with special value to native bees, bumble bees, and honey bees, and it also draws butterflies and hummingbirds.

A native central + eastern US perennial with intensely aromatic foliage when crushed and dense clouds of small blue-purple flowers in late fall - often the latest-blooming aster in the eastern flora. Drought + clay tolerant; among the toughest native fall pollinator plants.

The original black-eyed Susan - a bristly-stemmed, short-lived meadow daisy that behaves as an annual, biennial, or brief perennial depending on where it grows. It blooms hard and early from seed, then carries itself forward by reseeding rather than by spreading into a permanent clump.