Sunflower Head-Clipping Weevil

Diagnostic Walk-About Highlight: Mystery Solved

A mystery that has bedeviled me for several years was finally solved this past Monday thanks to participants in the Southwest Ohio BYGLive! Diagnostic Walk-About and my Walk-About partner, Julie Crook.  As I reported in my July 1, 2016, BYGL Alert! (Coneflower Calamities:  Round 1), Sunflower Head-Clipping Weevil (Haplorhynchites aeneus) females clip the flowers of coneflowers as well as members of the Silphium genus.  Indeed, the weevil is sometimes called the "Silphium weevil" owing to its strong association with plants in this genus.

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Joe Boggs

Coneflower Calamities: Round 1

I share Pam Bennett's love for coneflowers; she highlighted the delightful range of cultivars in her BYGL Alert! posted on June 30.  Of course, as she also noted, mass plantings of this wonderful native may suffer from occasional problems.  I'm covering three of the more serious coneflower challenges that may threaten coneflowers in Ohio landscapes in a 3-part series under the banner, "Coneflower Calamities."  Fortunately, each of these problems can be effectively managed through accurate early identification and focused management options.

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Authors
Joe Boggs