covering ground: carmel aster

Lessingia filanginifolia californica flowers

Corethrogyne leucophylla overview

When you see a plant listed as a “groundcover” you can expect practically anything, from something that will cling low to the earth and spread like spilled paint, to what’s really a sprawling shrubby thing that will form a loose mound of branches that’s several feet tall at the center. Closer to the first category is this plant that began blooming for me during the final days of July.

The plant goes by a number of common names, among them, Carmel aster, California aster, beach aster, and branching beach aster. And the number of Latin names attached to the plant doesn’t to much to simplify identifying it: Lessingia filanginifolia v. californica, Lessingia californica, Corethrogyne leucophylla, Corethrogyne filanginifolia. The last name, Corethrogyne filanginifolia, seems to be the one that’s going to stick for a while, so that’s the one I’ll be trying to train myself to use.

Corethrogyne leucophylla flowers and plant

Plant this where you’d like a white-leaved low groundcover. It blooms from midsummer into the fall with small, pale lavender flowers with perky yellow centers. The plant will go several months without supplemental watering, but will look better with an occasional sip of water (about once per month during the summer here near the coast).

As a groundcover the foliage on Carmel aster can be a little on the sparse side, especially when grown lean and dry, as you see here. But I use the bare spots as a place to sow some late winter-flowering wildflower seeds. Plants of California poppies look great peeking through the low mat of white leaves, for instance. By this time of year, however, weeds aren’t a problem, so the occasional bare patches aren’t a weed magnet like they might be during the winter.

Last fall I planted three different groundcovers to trial. This is the one that I’ll be keeping and planting more of.

7 thoughts on “covering ground: carmel aster”

  1. I wish there were ever a time in my garden when weeds weren’t a problem! It’s bermuda grass season here all summer long, and by the time the bermuda grass goes, the annual bluegrass is already back for the winter. Maybe it’d be better if all my natives were old enough that I didn’t feel the need to water any of them at all. But that would require me to stop buying new plants!

  2. Looks like a great plant! I’ll put that on the list for fall planting, looks perfect for tucking in to a few spots. I have too much bark visible in my garden…

  3. Donna, thank you!

    Tina, pretty, yes, and easy too. I like that combination!

    Gayle, so many plants, so little space… That bermuda is a tough one to deal with. Practically a forever plant from my experience. But once you find some natives that really like their spot I bet they’ll give the bermuda some real competition.

    TM, this is a perfect over-the-mulch plant. It sprawls without rooting, so it’s totally happy in a mulched situation.

  4. I planted Lessingia filaginifolia ‘Silver Carpet’ as a ground cover in a garden for a Girl Scout House. It filled in quickly and was quite dense in foliage. I don’t think it is very long lived, though. Did you use Silver Carpet? Your pictures actually look a bit different in growth habit.

    I see that Jepson is now using Corethrogyne rather than Lessingia. Hard to keep up with all these name changes!

  5. Barbara, I purchased the plant from Tree of Life Nursery as L. californica–no mention of the varietal Silver Carpet. Glancing at photos the growth habits seem a bit different, so it’s possible they’re different forms of the same species. It’s good to know about it’s potential for being short-lived. I’ll watch it closely to judge its potential. My coastal zone might be closer to the climate where it originated, so I wonder if it might suit it better than a more inland location.

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