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Characteristics
 Family-
Asteraceae--The Aster Family
- Origin
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Native NC
- Plant Description
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Large shrub to small tree, 5 to 15 feet tall; leaves tardily deciduous, alternate, simple, silvery gray green, elliptic with coarse, blunt teeth along the margins; flowers October to November, separate male and female plants; fruits white, paintbrush-like.
- Ornamental Characteristics
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The paintbrush-like fruits are the ornamental feature; only female plants produce fruit.
- Landscape Use
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Very useful as a salt tolerant hedge or screen; specimen small, limbed up tree; in the shrub border.
- Horticultural Cultivars
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None.
- Availability/Propagation
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Not available in nurseries, propagate from seed or transplant from the wild (with permission).
- Culture
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Grows best on moist soils in full sun.
- Coastal Ecology
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Baccharis halimifolia is the Silverling, a facultative species occuring in both wet and dry sites. It is seen along salt water marshes, but also inhabiting wet roadsides and disturbed areas inland. There are separate male and female plants, with the female bearing conspicuous, paintbrush-like fruits with long, white, silky plumes of hairs. Silverling is in fruit from late October through November in the coastal plain. Tolerant of salt spray, it makes a functional screen or hedge along windy marshlands or tidal creeks.
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