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Lessingia filaginifolia 'Silver Carpet' (Silver Carpet) - A low growing perennial that reaches to only about 4 inches tall but can get very wide, often listed to 4 feet but our original plants spread to 8 feet. The plant is densely clothed with toothed 1-inch-long soft spoon-shaped silvery-gray leaves that are folded upwards from the middle and have small blunt teeth along the margins. From the late spring through summer into fall appear the attractive 1-inch-wide lavender-pink, yellow-centered, daisy flowers which are particularly attractive to butterflies.
Best in full sun with occasional to infrequent irrigation in sandy or clay soils but tolerates drought and the wind and salt spray of near coastal conditions. A great plant for a small-scale groundcover in rock gardens or on slopes where it can be particularly effective spilling over a rock or wall.
This 'Silver Carpet' cultivar is a Carol Bornstein selection from coastal bluffs in Monterey County and was introduced by Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens as part of their native plant introduction program. The genus Lessingia was named to honor the German botanist Christian Friedrich Lessing (1809-1862), who specialized in and authored a book about the family Asteraceae; a previous name used for this genus was Corethrogyne, a name we first used when growing it, which comes from the Greek words 'korethron' meaning "a brush for sweeping" and 'gune' a "flower style" in reference to the brush-like style tips. Corethrogyne is actually the name currently being listed as accepted on most botanical databases, including The Jepson eFlora Vascular Plants of California, but we continue to list it as Lessingia so not to confuse customers and our staff with another name change.
This plant has also been known as Aster filaginifolia. The specific epithet means "leaves like those of Filago" the genus of the cottonroses or cudweeds also in the Asteraceae, in reference to the white, woolly threads on the leaf surfaces. We have grown this plant off and on at our nursery since 1995 - we have always liked this plant in the garden, but it only has a short time in the pot when it looks great - to those who know how well this plant performs in the garden, its look in the can does not matter so much. More information on this plant can be found on the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden's Plant Introduction Page.
This information about Lessingia filaginifolia 'Silver Carpet' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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