Golden Ragwort - Packera aurea

Yet another great plant burdened by a lack-luster common name, Packera aurea, also known as Golden Ragwort, is a perennial wildflower native to Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. It reaches 2 feet tall and flowers in May or June with clusters of yellow flowers that look dramatic in a grouping. Readly self-seeds. *Stunning* with Wild Blue Phlox for a colorful springtime display.

Golden Ragwort preferences range from full sun to partial shade, and wet to medium soil. It can serve as a semi-evergreen ground cover for moist, shady areas, and large naturalized plantings are spectacular in bloom. Also works well in rain gardens.  According to Michgan Flora, natural habitat includes "floodplains, hardwood and conifer swamps (especially in openings, on hummocks, and in springy places), depressions in upland forests; stream margins, sedge meadows, fens, moist thickets, and ditches."
 
Flowers attract small bees and pollinating flies in springtime, when other flowers are scarce. When I say flies, I don't mean the black kind that rudely sit on your baked beans. I mean amazing flies like the Narrow-Headed Marsh Fly, who mimic the coloration of bees to throw off other insects. They have aquatic larvae who eat rotting plant material. Adults can hover in the air and are interesting to watch on a spring day.