When I saw the flowers, my first thought was Lilac Tasselflower (Emilia sonchifolia) because we have a lot of it growing around our yard but upon closer look at the leaves, I realized it's not Emilia. It looks so familiar and I'm sure an easy one for identification but I'm drawing a blank. It's breezy outside so these aren't the best shots but I hope someone can refresh my memory with a name.

Looks like Cyathillium cinereum syn. Vernonia cinerea, Little Ironweed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

That's it, thanks so much @Metosideros Dave!

E komo mai! You're very welcome Lin!

The plant is a common weed in low elevation dry areas of Hawai'i, and apparently Florida too.

http://hear.org/pier/species/c...

We just moved farther south in the state a couple of months ago and I was very familiar with Emilia which I had growing in the yard in Daytona Beach and we also have quite a bit of that around our property here in Sebastain. I knew this weed wasn't Emilia because of the leaves and I did look at Ironweed photos but didn't find any with leaves that matched so I was stumped. I really appreciate your help with the ID! Little Ironweed is one that has apparently naturalized in the southern part of Florida.

Yes, it seems to be the only place in the continental US it has naturalized. It is alien but does not appear to be invasive so far. I think it may have been spread so quickly into warm areas of the world because of it's medicinal uses. It even has a possible future in modern medicine.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm...