Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. We’ve had several calls here at the Extension office lately asking for a plant to be identified. Usually I tell people they have to send me a picture, and a decent one at that if I’m going to have a chance of nailing it. But with the information that the plant in question looks like wax myrtle with white cottony flowers all over it, even I can figure out this one without consulting Dr. John Nelson at the AC Moore Herbarium of the University of South Carolina.
This is Baccharis halimifolia, or groundsel. The leaves are grayish green instead of the darker olive green found in wax myrtle but the shape is similar. The female plants are the ones with white flowers – the white color actually comes from the silky hairs that act as a parachute or sail for the seeds – just like on a dandelion.
