In early May, an ordinary looking patch of gravel along Ohio’s Most Beautiful Mile bursts into full bloom.
The bright Lakeside daisy (Hymenoxys herbacea) is one of Ohio’s most spectacular wildflowers. This long-lived perennial grows where few others can, on nearly barren limestone bedrock in full sunlight.
In early to mid-May, the bright, yellow flowers adorn the otherwise bleak and sunbaked landscape of the Marblehead Quarry; the only natural population of the Lakeside daisy in the U.S. It is a federally threatened species and has been listed as endangered in Ohio since 1980.