Antennaria plantaginifolia

Sizes available: Landscape plugs

Basics: zones 3-8, 12" x 6"+, full sun to part shade, mid spring bloom that looks like little kitten toes on fuzzy stalks over low-growing mats of silvery foliage, likes lean and slightly acid soils, drought tolerant

Common names: Pussy Toes, Plantain-leaved Pussy Toes, Ladies' Tobacco, Mouse Ear, Everlasting

Family: Asteraceae

Origin/Distribution: Quebec and Maine, south to Florida, west to Louisiana, and north to Minnesota, native to Maine

Habitat: open, sunny, dry, lean, rocky

More: Larval host for the American Painted Lady, Vanessa virginensis, which is native to Maine. Excellent rock garden resident, or at the front of a dry, sunny border. I am testing out how much shade it can tolerate. In certain situations this could replace scraggly, ineffective lawn very nicely, I think. Stoloniferous and mat-forming as well as deer and rabbit resistant.

Nursery: Pizzo Native Plants

Image credits: Kristyna Culp (overall form) and Fritz Flohr Reynolds (detail) - both via Creative Commons through the North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox; flowering stems in the leaves, Honey Petal Plants