Photo: Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Woolly Beach Heather

Hudsonia tomentosa

Also called beach heather, sand heather, beach heath, sand false heather, woolly hudsonia, povertygrass.

A gray, woolly evergreen mat of dunes and sand barrens that covers itself in tiny yellow flowers from May into July.

RareEvergreenShowy flowersDrought tolerantErosion control

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–2 ft
USDA zones: 2–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full
Soil moisture: Dry
Grows wild in: The coast, sandy barrens and dry uplands
Native range: 21 states, north and west to North Dakota and south to North Carolina
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Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
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Woolly beach heather is a low, gray, mat-forming evergreen of the rockrose family. Its tiny, scale-like leaves lie pressed to the stems under a coat of white wool. It grows on open sand along the Atlantic coast and around the Great Lakes, and west across Canada to Alberta. Illinois, Iowa and Vermont list it as endangered. Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and North Carolina list it as threatened, and Ohio lists it as presumed extirpated. Its roots hold loose sand in place. It is fairly hard to grow and to establish in gardens. Plant it in full sun on dry, open sand, behind the dunes or in a sandy bed where nothing taller can shade it.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows slowly, and our growth estimator treats it as slow. It makes a low mound 3 to 8 inches tall and 1 to 2 feet across, and it forms spreading patches. A plant buried by blowing sand roots along its buried stems and grows up through the sand.

Bright yellow flowers about a quarter inch across crowd the tips of short side branches from May into July. Each flower opens in the morning, and its petals fall the same day. The tiny capsules ripen from July into September and shed their seed quickly. Bees and other pollinators visit the flowers for nectar.

It grows wild along the Atlantic coast from Labrador to North Carolina. Inland it grows on the dunes and sand plains of the Great Lakes, Minnesota and the Canadian prairies, west to Alberta. Its home is open, shifting sand in dunes and blowouts, beaches, pine barrens and sand barrens.

How to grow Woolly Beach Heather

Woolly beach heather needs full sun on dry, open sand, and woody plants that shade it crowd it out. On the coast it grows behind the front dune, since it tolerates salt spray far less than the dune grasses do. Set plants 2 feet apart and keep them 2 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in spring or fall in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the sand back in. Give the seed 60 days cold and damp, the best of the chilling periods tried so far. Sow it in a mix of one part peat to two parts sand. It is fairly hard to raise, and one sowing gave little in the first two months.

Water it through dry spells until it is established. Do not step on it or drive over it, since trampling and vehicles harm it. Keep taller plants from spreading over it, because it needs open sand.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and bees visit the flowers for nectar. No notable pest problems have been seen on it.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (12)