Plant · P-1075

Greenthread

Thelesperma filifolium

Greenthread is a wispy, thread-leaved annual wildflower that carries small yellow daisy blooms from spring into summer, sometimes flowering on and off through a mild winter. Bees and butterflies work the flowers heavily, and it is one of the few plants that feeds the dwarf yellow butterfly's caterpillars as well as the adults; the seed that follows draws seed-eating birds. It thrives on hot, dry, sun-baked ground - sand, caliche, limestone or heavy clay all suit it as long as drainage is sharp - and spreads only by seed, forming loose colonies on open, disturbed dirt. Despite going by the name Navajo tea in some catalogs, it is not the greenthread that is actually brewed - that is a different, closely related species.