Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Small
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

A poisonous perennial herb of eastern North American woodlands, notorious for causing milk sickness — a fatal illness spread through the milk of cattle that grazed on it, responsible for the death of Abraham Lincoln's mother in 1818. Its flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers bloom from late summer into autumn along shaded forest edges.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Ageratina
Species: Ageratina altissima