The reference is possibly to Saint Barbara, though the association is obscure. Saint Barbara had long hair, and is also associated with lightning—perhaps the individual flowers resemble lightning bolts, or the whole head of flowers resembles Saint Barbara's long locks (Coin 2005). This common name was not, at any rate, widespread in the 19th century. It was not used in Southern Wildflowers and Trees (1901) or Plant Life Of Alabama (1901). The botanist B.W. Wells, in Natural Gardens of North Carolina (1932), called the plants "loudspeakers", referring to the megaphone shape of the individual flowers. The first printed use of the name "Barbara's buttons" is in Small's Manual of the Southeastern Flora (1933). References Further reading Channell, Robert Bennie (1955). A revisional study of the genus Marshallia Schreb (Compositae). Thesis (Ph. D.) Duke University. Duncan, Wilbur H., Marion B. Duncan (1999). Wildflowers of the Eastern United States. University of Georgia Press. . Lounsberry, Alice (1901). Southern Wild Flowers and Trees. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Mohr, Charles T. (1901). Plant Life Of Alabama. Montgomery, Alabama: Brown Printing Company. Porcher, Richard D., Douglas A. Rayner (2002), A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina. University of South Carolina Press. . Radford, Albert E., H.E. Ahles, and C. R. Bell (1968). Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. . Rickett, Harold (1975). Wildflowers of the United States II(2): 630. New York: McGraw-Hill. Small, John Kunkel (1933). Manual of Southeastern Flora. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Wells, B.W. (1932, reprint 2002). Natural Gardens of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. . Center for Plant Conservation account for Marshallia grandiflora, accessed 25 May 2006 External links USDA Plants Profile: Marshallia Helenieae Asteraceae genera Endemic flora of the United States Flora of the United States Flora of the Southeastern United States