Anaphalis margaritacea (Pearly Everlasting)

Plant Description: Individual, erect, cottony stems grow 1-3 ft. tall and are often clumped together creating a bushy appearance. Narrow leaves are gray-green to woolly-white. Globular flowers are actually long-enduring, white, dry bracts arranged around a yellow center. Several evenly leafy woolly stems in a small patch are topped by a crowded, roundish cluster of flower heads with pearly-white bracts, sometimes with a dark spot at base of each outer bracts.

• Height: 1 - 3 ft.

• Width: .5 - 1 ft.

• Watering needs: regular, can tolerate dry soil

• Sun needs: full sun, part shade

• Soil needs: moist, well-draining to dry

• Bloom Time: mid-summer

• Portland Plant List (Backyard Habitat Certification): Yes

Landscape Use and Ecological Function:

Common to sub alpine elevation, but also widespread through many ecosystems. An excellent pollinator companion plant, and can tolerate dry river banks to moist meadow lands. The dried stalks with their pearly-white heads are attractive in floral arrangements and don't lose their color, hence the colloquial name. An essential species in butterfly gardens.