Lakeside daisy is one of Ohio's most spectacular wildflowers. This long-lived perennial grows where few others can, on nearly barren limestone bedrock in full sunlight. All individuals within a given population tend to bloom at approximately the same time, producing the spectacular effect of a golden blanket. All the flower heads track the sun across the sky in unison. After about a week, the double notched petals fade before falling.
Seed dispersal takes place about a month later.
Lakeside daisy also reproduces vegetatively by rhizomatous growth. It is from this rhizome that new plants emerge. This distinction is due to its limited distribution both in Ohio and throughout its geographic range. The only natural population of Lakeside daisy in the United States grows on the Marblehead Peninsula in Ottawa County. In 1988 the lakeside daisy was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a Federally Threatened species.