Daisy Fleabane

The other day my husband waltzed into the house and proudly announced he had successfully mowed around my flower in the fence row (located between the gravel driveway and the field fence) without hurting it.  I was confused.  What plant was he speaking about?  Was I crazy enough to sow something in the harsh environment between the gravel driveway, the hot car engines, and the field fence?  I went to investigate and found this beautiful flower blooming.

It was "chigger weeds" which I considered to be worthless.  I pull them constantly from my flowerbeds but this one was too pretty to discard.  It should be featured on this month's Wildflower Wednesday linkup and shown to the world!  Perhaps there was some unknown secret health benefit I could unearth if I searched the internet. There must be something exciting to share.  Thus began my quest to learn about my newly discovered treasure blooming in front of our parked cars.

The official name is "Daisy Fleabane, Erigeron strigosus."  It received this moniker because in the distant past it was stuffed into mattresses to repel fleas, claimed the first expert I discovered.  However, the next expert disagreed with everything the previous person stated.  As I expanded my research everyone continued to disagree.  I found no epic life-changing benefit, at least nothing I would trust enough to try and nothing worthwhile to share.  I thought the internet was always right.  After checking dozens of sites, I ended up being even more confused.  Is it worthless or not? 

  Does it, or does it not repel fleas?  Is its name a lie?  What is the truth?

Since the correct answer was elusive, I decided to ask my own in-house flea expert - someone trustworthy - someone who has always been honest and spoken the truth.  At least I could be sure of one fact and could share it with everyone.

"Scooter," I asked.  "Does Daisy Fleabane repel fleas?"

"Worthless weed!  I don't know about fleas, but it sure does REPEL ME!!!!!"