Spring Flowering Plant Lakeside Daisy

The Lakeside daisy has been botanically referred to as Hymenoys herbacea, Tetraneuris herbacea or Hymenoxys acaulis var. glabra and is from the Asteraceae family. It is federally protected as a threatened species and, since 1988, has been listed as an endangered plant in Ohio.

How to Identify the Lakeside Daisy

The Lakeside daisy is categorized as a perennial herb and grows from a rhizome. The lance shaped leaves grow at the base. The leaves are thick and rubbery.

Each plant has a single flower stalk. The yellow flower has petals surrounding a cone-like center. The blooms of an entire planting open at the same time and last approximately one week. The flowers bloom early through the middle of May.

Where Endangered Lakeside Daisies Survive

In recent history, four locations are known for growing the Lakeside daisy, all in North America. The following areas have protected sites, bordering the Great Lakes including the Canadian side of Lake Huron:

• The Manitoulin Island and Bruce Peninsula has a restricted area under habitat protection, enforced by Ontario law. In southern Ontario, the bloom time occurs late May through early July.

• Lakeside, in northern Ohio’s Ottawa County, has the only naturalized plant grouping in the United States. The Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve has 19 acres on Marblehead Peninsula.

• The local Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Will County, Illinois, is an example of a dolomite prairie, making it an excellent habitat for Lakeside daisies.

• Considered the most fragile and least known is a single small colony in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Mackinac County in Michigan. The status of this site is uncertain.

Habitat of the Lakeside Daisy

The Lakeside daisy naturally grows in dry, rocky prairie grassland that has limestone beneath. The plant requires full sun to survive.

Several circumstances have contributed to the destruction of the plant’s needed habitat. The increased growth of shrubs and trees has added more shading in areas with previously sunny locations. The limestone quarrying, construction work and plant collectors creating increased foot traffic have further destroyed growing sites.

The Lakeside daisy naturally grew in central Illinois and, in the past, reintroduction has been attempted. Before being destroyed three plants were rescued and became the basis for research to learn more about this endangered plant.

The Lakeside daisy is a beautiful flower especially when blooming in a mass planting. Unfortunately, it is an endangered native plant now guarded in many locations to ensure its survival. The Lakeside daisy can be seen in a small planting at the Governor’s Heritage Garden in Bexley, Ohio.

Gardeners interested in native wildflowers can consider forget-me-nots and trillium, as well.