Hairy Pagoda-plant

Hairy Pagoda-plant
Blephilia hirsute

So I was walking through this nice woodland with some friends, spotting and photographing new plants that I hadn't seen before and came upon this plant. I couldn't find it in any field guide, so I took some shots to take home and try to identify. Part of the problem was that the mosquitoes carried us back to our cars and it's hard to use a field guide in that situation. I still couldn't find it at home nor on the internet, so I went to the go-to site: IN-PLANTS. This listserv is populated by highly talented botanists who can identify plants just by looking at the color of a leaf.

After some discussion it was decided that it was Blephilia hirsuta, Hairy Woodmint. This is a fairly boring name, but to my delight the USDA Plants database uses the name Pagoda-plant rather than Woodmint. We were all pretty excited when I shared that with my friends! :-)