hubrichtii combines well with many other perennials with coarser foliage, especially other natives such as blackeyed Susan ( Rudbeckia sp.) and coneflowers ( Echinacea purpurea, E. hubrichtii is a good contrast to many other plants. The flowers are followed by slender, rounded, elongated seed pods. Each ½-inchstar-shaped blossom has 5 petals that fade to white when the weather warms. The 2-3” wide inflorescences are often obscured by the foliage. The blue, star-shaped flowers (R) are borne in terminal clusters (L).

Terminal clusters of steel blue buds and small, light blue flowers are produced in late spring and early summer. The willowy, medium to dark green leaves turn a brilliant golden yellow color in the fall. The stems are densely covered with soft, narrow, needle-like leaves that create a ferny appearance. Oklahoma, and Missouri (mainly in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma) and is hardy in zones 4-9.Īrkansas blue star is an herbaceous perennial that forms bushy clumps up to 3 feet tall and wide.

The narrow, needle-like leaves create a ferny appearance. Commonly called Arkansas blue star or thread-leaf blue star, this member of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae) grows naturally in fields, dry, rocky outcrops and well-drained creek banks and bottomlands of Arkansas, It actually had been collected previously, but had been misidentified as A. This southern native was “discovered” in Arkansas in 1942 by an assistant to a botanist at the Missouri Botanical Garden – Mr. Arkansas or Thread-leaf Blue Star, Amsonia hubrichtiiĪmsonia hubrichtii was the Perennial Plant Association’s plant of the year 2011.

Light blue flowers