Blazingstar, Prairie - Liatris pycnostachya

Liatris pycnostachia, also known as Prairie Blazingstar, is a regionally native perennial wildflower which is adventive in Michigan and the UP (spread here from adjacent states along human pathways). It seems very at home here, and is likely successful due to human alteration of the habitat in the UP from mostly dense forest to open fields, lawns, railways, and such. However, it may not be originally native to the UP, and if a purely native planting is your goal, we recommend Rough Blazingstar.
 
Prairie Blazingstar is an excellent garden plant and can reach 4 feet tall, flowering around the beginning of August with a stalk of purple blossoms. It prefers full sun to partial shade, medium-dry to moist, well-drained soil and will grow in clay, loam or sand.
 
This show-stopper does an excellent job at accenting gardens with a strongly-textured spike of flowers. It pairs well with almost anything, but looks especially good with mid- to late-season flowers which have clusters of fine blooms in contrasting colors, like Mountain Mint, Grass-leaved Goldenrod, Early (or other) Goldenrod, and Yarrow. Prairie Blazingstar also go nicely with Evening Primrose and Black-eyed Susans.
 
They are deer resistant, and although our overpopulated and hungry UP deer will take a nip out of anything, deer don't seem to come back for seconds. On the other hand, clients at locations with lots of chipmunks and not enough predators have reported that chipmunks will eat the corms (bulbs). If chipmunks are a problem at your planting, protect the corms from rodents until the plant is well established and can handle some chewing.
 
These and other Blazingstars are Monarch favorites, and attract other butterflies, skippers, a variety of bees, and hummingbirds. (Check out the picture at the greenhouse of a bumblebee coming in to land.) In the fall, birds will eat the seeds.