There are a half dozen or so Juncos eating the Tall and New York Ironweed seed in my back yard. Pretty purple flowers that attract butterflies in the summer, and seed that attracts cute birds in the fall. What more could you ask for? : ) FYI, I grow both species, as they hybridize, and I get lots of (fertile) seed. Flowers in the aster family tend to be self-sterile, so you have to have 2 different cultivars, or two different seed-grown individuals to get fertile seed. If they hybridize with other species of the same genus (and Vernonia do) that will do, too.