I used to pull this out of my garden by the handful every year. It grows and blooms quite happily in the cracks and crevasses in the alley. One year I noticed that nurseries were actually selling it. I discovered that it is considered a native plant, not a weed and grows in native wet prairies. I gave up and now it resides happily in the backyard, along with wild columbine that resows itself every year. This area just west of Chicago, before the 1900's, was miles and miles of only prairie. So it stands to reason.
The Algonquin and Potawatomi used the plant for medicinal purposes. The blue fringe, which you can't see, is used in labs as a bioassay to indicate the presence of radiation. It'll turn pink. How convenient to have my own backyard alert. Heads up on that incoming nuclear blast.
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Random Favorite # 23
