Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Hairy Thoroughwort - Eupatorium pubescens   Muhlenberg ex Willdenow
Members of Asteraceae:
Members of Eupatorium with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorMuhlenberg ex Willdenow
DistributionOccurs throughout the Piedmont, most or all of the Mountains, and much of the Coastal Plain, where range seems spotty (but maybe under-collected). Perhaps genuinely rare to absent in the southeasternmost counties.

ME? and NH to OH and AR, south to northern FL and LA.
AbundanceSeemingly common to very common across the Piedmont and probably the southern Mountains; likely uncommon to infrequent in much of the Mountains and Coastal Plain. Weakley's (2018) map codes it in NC as "common" in the Piedmont, but "uncommon" in the Mountains as well as in the Coastal Plain. Oddly, the NCNHP has a State Rank of S1, but this is clearly incorrect, and the editors suggest S5 -- as it is clearly a common species across the Piedmont and into much of the mountains.
HabitatMesic to dry or moist woodland openings, forest openings, glades, barrens, fields, meadows, roadsides, powerlines. Occurs in typical dry to mesic edge habitats for many members of the genus.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting July - early October.
IdentificationHairy Thoroughwort is closely related to Roundleaf Thoroughwort but often grows taller (up to 3 feet or more), and the leaves have an olive-green tone, rather than gray-green or plain green. Leaf margins are generally sharply toothed vs. crenate (low, rounded teeth), and the general leaf shape is indeed more ovate as opposed to rotund. Note the absence in the Coastal Plain (at least as far as known). It differs from the very slightly narrower-leaved E. godfreyanum by the leaves having the two main side veins angled away from the main vein and then curved, such that the leaves are prominently 3-veined and not pinnately veined as in that less common species.
Taxonomic CommentsOften treated as E. rotundifolium var. ovatum.

Other Common Name(s)Hairy Boneset, Hairy Eupatorium
State RankS1 [S5]
Global RankG5T5 [G5]
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B.A. SorrieSame data; midstem leaves. MoorePhoto_natural
B.A. SorriePiedmont, dry-mesic margin of Pine Grove Church Road, Aug 2009. MoorePhoto_natural
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