Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Sunday - June 21, 2015

From: Downingtown, PA
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of plant with speckled green leaf
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I have a purple (or brown) speckled green leaf plant with tiny yellow daisy-like flowers. The leaf is fuzzy looking on the edge. Self seeds freely in my shady garden.

ANSWER:

Here are two plants native to Pennsylvania that look something like your description:

Erythronium americanum (Yellow trout-lily)

Hieracium venosum (Rattlesnake weed)

However, I think that probably your plant is not a plant native to North America. Our focus and expertise are with plants native to North America and our database contains only native plants. If it is not one of the plants above and you have photos of it, I suggest you visit our Plant Identification page to find links to plant identification forums that will accept photos of plants for identification.

From the Image Gallery

Yellow trout-lily
Erythronium americanum

Rattlesnakeweed
Hieracium venosum