PlantFiles: Florida Tassel Flower, Florida Tasselflower, Cupid's Shaving Brush
Emilia fosbergii

This weed has been in my yard since I moved here but I thought nothing of it and carelessly plucked them out of the ground. However this winter I noticed how much the butterflies love them! The monarchs and queens actually flock to this flower more than they do to my milkweed! So now I love this flower, and I'm going to transplant it into my butterfly garden.

Not native to Florida, it is thought to be native to east or central Africa.

I tend to leave this "weed" to grow where it will. I enjoy the small, bright red dot that it provides amongst other plant groupings. It is especially welcome in my patch of dianthus (pinks) as an occasional accent of red. I've even transplanted some of these plants successfully to add to my collection of red flowering plants in the hummingbird garden.

I think it has potential for development as an ornamental plant. If the size of the flower head could be increased through selective breeding, it would make an interesting and unusually shaped red flower.

This is a happy carefree plant that showed up in our gardens last year. The butterflies just adore it.
Seems to preferr full sun and little care. Does well in sandy soils as well as in rich composte.