Why choose native plants? Pacific Northwest native plants know how to live here and how to thrive here. They often need much less water and less fertilizer. They spread slowly and are not invasive. They support a wide diversity of wildlife. And best of all, they look great!
Also called Showy Tarweed. Arising from a single hairy, sticky, and resinous stalk that smells like pineapple, elegant tarweed explodes into a multi-headed hydra of gloriously bright yellow flowers nearly 4 inches across that are often marked with deep magenta centers. The magnificent flowers that burst forth before sunrise curl up from each petal tip by midday, eluding late risers … but not bees, who love this plant. Male melissodes (long-horned bees) in particular, know tarweed flowerheads are a great place to spend the night, clustered together in nectar-soaked revere, awaiting the sunlight of dawn and the female bees that wake early to pollinate this plant. Elegant tarweed reaches heights atypical of our native wildflowers, often standing more than 5-feet high, towering above the dried-out kin of earlier seasons. This late season bloomer also has the fantastically amazing ability to set deep tap roots that allow it to prosper in the latest, hottest days of summer, even in heavy clay soils, months after the last rainfall. Occurring from southern Washington throughout California, showy tarweed wraps up its short, dazzling lifecycle with small, sunflower-like seeds that attract goldfinches and other songbirds. This is an easy to grow garden plant. Image courtesy of Northwest Meadowscapes.
