Plant · P-1071

Engelmann Daisy

Engelmannia peristenia

Engelmann's daisy is a prairie wildflower native to the south-central United States, with deeply cut basal leaves and yellow daisy flowers held on stout stems up to three feet tall. Its foliage ranks among the highest-protein spring forage on the range, greening up before winter has fully let go and feeding cattle, sheep, goats, deer and rabbits while other plants are still dormant. That popularity is also its weakness: grazing animals prefer it so strongly that an overgrazed stand can vanish from a pasture within a season or two. A deep taproot carries it through drought, and in blistering heat its petals fold downward rather than wilt.