Silverling belongs to the rough edges of things: salt marshes, roadsides, the margins between land and tidal flat. Along the eastern seaboard from Canada to Mexico, this multi-trunked shrub grows with an open, airy looseness that suits its windswept habitats. The genus name nods to Bacchus, god of wine, while the resinous, gray-green leaves recall the cistus relatives that inspired the species epithet. Reaching 5 to 12 feet with an irregular, spreading form, it is not a plant for a tidy garden — it is a plant for an honest one.

What Baccharis halimifolia offers is timed for when most shrubs have given up: fall and winter bring cream-colored flower heads, followed on female plants by the frilly white seedheads that give it the name Silverling. The show depends on proximity — this plant is dioecious, requiring both sexes for fruit set. Plant it in full sun to part shade in wet, sandy, or infertile soils where little else will persist. It handles drought, heat, and saltwater exposure with equanimity. For rain gardens, bog margins, or naturalized coastal buffers, few natives are as willing or as well-timed.