Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Monday - May 21, 2012
From: Quinwood, WV
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Mystery forest plant in WV
Answered by: Anne Bossart
QUESTION:
In the mountains of southern WV I have several acres of shady, moist land. It has never been developed and is COVERED with a low growing fern?ground cover?whatever. It creeps along on very shallow roots. It is about 3" tall, sometimes has a small yellow shoot which I think is its "flower". It turns yellow when it goes into the winter season, but comes back to lush, thick continuous green cover. I have had no luck at transplanting. The foliage makes me think of the needles of hemlock or another native evergreen. HELP! I have looked EVERYWHERE!ANSWER:
Although it is impossible to identify your plant without seeing it, we can make an educated guess and hopefully point you in the right direction.
From your description, we suspect that your plant is probably a Lycopodium sp. (commonly known as club moss or ground pine and ground cedar) and most likely Lycopodium digitatum (Fan clubmoss) It forms large colonies on hardwood forest floors and is very common throughout Appalachia. If you read the Wikipedia article about Lycopodium it will tell you more about the plant species. L. dendroideum and L hickeyi are also candidates that are native to West Virginia.
From the Image Gallery
More Plant Identification Questions
Non-native astilbe resemblance to non-native poisonous castor bean from Tomslake BC
May 21, 2014 - I have a plant that looks like a castor bean but it has flowers like a Younique Silvery Pink Astilbe. Need to id because castor bean is poisonous. This plant grows up to 5 feet in height.
Thank you !
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
June 23, 2008 - Hi, I live in southeastern PA, and want to identify a wildflower . It about 36" tall, with a showy red spiked flower at the top, appox. 2" in diameter.
Thanks,
Robin
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
May 19, 2009 - I found a large shrub/tree behind an old building on my place. It has small smooth oval leaves 3/4-1 inch; x 1/2 inch, small somewhat clusters of a blue fruit 1/4-1/2 inch diam with one seed in it. Ca...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification, orange honeysuckle
December 14, 2009 - I have two potted trees in my yard. They have honeysuckle-shaped, orange flowers that bloom year long and the leaves also resemble those of honeysuckle. There were no identification tags on them whe...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
July 18, 2010 - My daughter is working on a wildflower collection for her Biology class, we have found a flower, that, for appearances sake, is identified in books as Selfheal. This flower is taller than pictures we...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |