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Cyanthillium cinereum

Asteraceae

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There’s a common little wildflower around, kinda pretty, kinda subtle.  You’d perhaps never guess it isn’t native, given that it seems so comfortably “at home” in Florida woodlands while never to my knowledge becoming rampant, rude, and ruderal.  Little Ironweed is native to Tropical Asia.

I wonder if the migration of this tropical species northward in the Americas is related to Global Warming.   The seeds are readily dispersed by wind,   so its migration is more likely controlled by conditions where it lands than by ability to get there.  Check out this apparent progression based on a quick & dirty survey of museum specimens and literature reports:

Indigenous to SE Asia: forever

Jamaica: 1882

Widespread in Caribbean: 1960s

Miami and the Keys: 1961-1968 many collections (as though novel)

Palm Beach County (Palm Beach Junior College Campus—Panther Proud!): 1968

Brevard County  (north of prior record):  1974.  This is the present known reliably identified northern limit.

There are current reports in Georgia on inaturalist, but of dubious accuracy.

Back in its area of origin, Little Ironweed has an unusual use:  as a “quit smoking” aid.  Studies aimed at getting to the bottom of this application and why it works have found two relevant points of knowledge:

1. The weed contains nicotine.

2. It numbs the tongue.

(Do not try it!  The plant contains bioactive compounds beyond nicotine, and may not be safe!)

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