Packera aurea, syn. Senecio aureus, golden ragwort

Golden ragwort, one of several species, now given the genus name of Packera...but formerly Senecio. Those taxonomists... This group hangs out in wet areas or moist roadsides, particularly in the Appalachians. It is a good indicator of a reasonably healthy landscape and seems to drop out when weeds, mowing, and general gentrification of area occurs as people neat and tidy it out of existence. Host to the now uncommonly collected A. gardineri....some due to loss of this plant and some due to lack of collecting in more undisturbed areas. Plants and pictures taken by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.