Dog Fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) in the Eupatoriums Database

An extremely fast growing plant most often found in cow pastures, disturbed land & along roadsides. It has a quite pungent odor when touched & the odor will stay on your clothing or skin until you wash. It is not an especially unpleasant odor but not a sweet scent either.
CAUTION: This volunteers freely & most people consider this a highly invasive plant. It grows very aggressively.
It can be very pretty & graceful to look at with it's fine foliage.
When growing in cow pastures the cows eat around this plant because it contains liver-damaging pyrrolizidine alkaloids. This is why the scarlet bodied wasp moth, Cosmosoma myrodora, feed on Dogfennel; they store the toxins in it & that helps them ward off prey.

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