Lakeside Daisy blooms again

LAKESIDE-MARBLEHEAD – Nature lovers, rejoice! Ohio’s rarest wildflower is in bloom — the Lakeside daisy.

This perennial grows where few others can: on nearly barren limestone bedrock in full sunlight.

In early to mid-May, the bright yellow flowers of the Lakeside daisy adorn an otherwise bleak, sun-baked landscape of the former Marblehead Quarry.

The Lakeside daisy — Hymenoxys herbacea — is the rarest of Ohio’s native plant species because of its limited distribution in Ohio and throughout its geographic range, blooming naturally in only four places in the world.

Each basal rosette of leaves usually produces a single 6-inch-high leafless stalk topped with a solitary flower. All individuals within a given population tend to bloom about the same time.

The largest population of the Lakeside daisy in the United States grows here on the Marblehead Peninsula on the east side of Alexander Pike and only lasts about a week to a week and a half.

Discovery of a rarity

In 1890, Clarence M. Weed, of the Ohio Experimental Station, first reported the Lakeside daisy.

He thought it was one of the western species and had been a recent introduction to Marblehead.

The ancestral plants of the Lakeside daisy most likely spread east about 8,000 years ago during the Xerothemic interval. That was an extended period of hot, dry weather when many drought-tolerant prairie plants spread from west to east.

Much of the Marblehead peninsula at one time consisted of rocky, nearly barren openings with grasses and few trees.

About 4,000 years ago, cooler, more humid weather conditions developed in the Midwest, physically isolating the daisy’s ancestors from the western population. Those eastern plants evolved into the current Lakeside daisy.

It’s the only member of the genus Hymenoxys found east of the Mississippi River. The dozen other species of Hymenoxys, which are often called rubberweeds for their slightly poisonous, milky sap, grow in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains south to Mexico and the mountains of South America.

Protection

In 1988, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Natural Areas and Preserves acquired 19 acres of abandoned limestone quarry form Standard Slag Company, bought by LaFarge North America.

A local resident, Colleen “Casey” Taylor, was instrumental in mobilizing statewide support for the protection of the Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve. Additionally, Ruth E. Fiscus, of Cleveland Heights, diligently championed the protection of the daisy for more than 40 years.

Thus, the Lakeside Daisy (Colleen “Casey” Taylor Ruth E. Fiscus) State Nature Preserve on Alexander Pike was born.

Although many believed that quarrying would doom the Lakeside daisy, that has not been the case. Many of the original sites have been obliterated, but new sites have been created, including one on Kelley’s Island in 1989.

Other than Ohio and a small population in Michigan, the Lakeside daisy occurs naturally in only two areas of Canada — Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island, Ontario. It is a federal threatened and state-listed endangered species.

jdenton@gannett.com

419-734-7506

Twitter: @jessicadentonNH

LAKESIDE DAISY

Currently blooming (early to mid-May)

Preserve located half a mile south of SR 163 on Alexander Pike/Township Road 142

Lakeside-Marblehead, Ohio

For more information on Ohio’s Natural Areas and Preserves, visit www.ohiodrn.com/dnap.