Florida Shrub Thoroughwort
koanophyllon villosum

days to maturity:
plant spacing: 1 plant per 3 square feet
sunlight requirements: 6-14 hours
look out for: nothing!
harvest notes: not edible 
perennial

Florida Shrub Thoroughwort is a super cool hard to find woody stemmed aster that is only native to the pine rocklands and hardwood hammocks in South Dade County. We happened to find just a few of these at a local nursery who didn't even know what they were! they propagated some because they just thought the flowers looked nice, which is true, the small white puffy aster flowers are cute and the low shrub, which grows to about hip height, seems like it would make a good cutting flower because the stems are long and straight. A native South Florida wildflower book by Roger Hammer we referenced said that this species will "delight every butterfly within sight", which is quite an endorsement from the local pollinator community. 

First photo of it flowering by local native plant legend Roger Hammer.