Does anyone know what this is? I am zone 5A. Noticed this in my yard today. As you can see from the second picture, the flowers have little tips of magenta on the ends of their petals. Just curious if it is something useful that I might want to encourgage in the yard. Thanks in advance for the help!

Hi Jen -

It looks like a slightly weedy member of the Aster family (aka composite family, aka Sunflower family, includes dandelions). Members of this family can easily be identified by their classic "composite flower" morphology.

If you look closely, the flower has 2 types of flowers: flowers with petals (along the edge, called ray flowers), and flowers without petals (in the center, called disc flower). Then there is a row of phyllaries subtending the petals (green scaly things).

Sorry I don't know what it is! Plants in this family are most often used for their bitter agents. I'm guessing this plant is stinky and somewhat bitter if you tasted it.

Go ahead, taste! You can't kill yourself if you try a very small amount and spit it out.

That might be an English daisy, Bellis perennis. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/181/

I'm no expert though. I just posted your first picture in the google image search bar and typed things like "white wildflower" "weed flower" and such until something looked similar. I've been trying to identify plants on my land recently, and so far this method has been a good starting point for me.

It's very pretty. I hope it has some uses. I fell in love with one tree on my land and it turned out to be a destructive and invasive species =[

Thank you for the suggestions. Chris - I found this flower when I was taking my dog out, well, you know. I think that the taste of the leaves would be the least of my worries! There will be no foraging of this specimen in my future.

Looks like a plain old daisy to me as well. Presumably edible if there's nothing else around, and somewhat bitter. Here's a link http://www.eattheweeds.com/edible-flowers-part-twelve/