Vernonia baldwinii Vernonieae, Chicorioideae, Asteraceae, Asterales https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/baldwin_ironweedx.htm#:~:text=The%20alternate%20leaves%20are%20up,or%20sessile%20against%20the%20stem.

Picking up all the bigger sticks and branches in a natural woodland garden makes a major difference in the look and feel of the space. It is for pretty much the same reason you wouldn't leave all the deadfall from large mature trees in a more convential garden. All those sticks and branches fall in and on top of your plants. They also decompose much more slowly than leaves and can pile up quite a bit over time. The plants matter just as much in a woodland garden as any other garden. You don't want them buried in and fighting to come up through a bunch of sticks. It is the same reason I want to have all the remaining dried bits of the herbaceous perennials chopped down before early spring. The biggest bloom in a good east coast woodland garden is in the early spring. The majority of the native spring ephemeral wildflowers are less than a foot tall. You don't want the visual competition of a bunch of taller standing sticks with shorter plants. Bottom line is that keeping the forest tidy is to display the plants you and nature are growing to their best advantage.

Antennaria parlinii

This wildflower with glossy leaves a few inches long was found in the Central Texas Hill Country (back in February). (I uprooted it only because the area was going to be scraped clear, anyways.) What is it?