| From In the Garden |
I have a wonderful natural area where I try to walk each week. The total walk is about 4.5 miles; which takes me a long time to walk (don't ask how long). On these walks nature usually calls. Finding a convenient spot is not difficult and due to my Army days I am not averse to taking care of nature in the wild-I always come prepared. Anyhow, on one of my side jaunts I found this wonderful groundcover. Can you see all the green in the above picture? Wowser! What can it be? This spot of green in the dead of winter?
| From In the Garden |
I came home from my walk really anxious to try to identify this plant. I knew it smelled like an Eastern red cedar and it was also scaly like red cedars. It grew all along the ground so I figured it was a ground cover. I searched the web and all my garden books for an evergreen groundcover that smells and looks like a juniper-something to that effect. No luck. Evergreen groundcover Google searches come up with such things as pachysandra, liriope, the dreaded vinca and others. I knew my plant was none of these. I grew a bit frustrated but then I remembered I had seen this plant on a blog at some point. I did not know which blog but knew it was either Les at a Tidewater Gardener or How it Grows. Both bloggers are located in Virginia. Considering how many blogs I read I was very happy I could narrow it down to just these two bloggers. I immediately emailed them both. Both were nice enough to respond to me with an identification (this was back in December while I was on break). I was so happy to learn the identity of this groundcover! Les also sent me a link to his post that mentioned Running Cedar. Thanks guys! I very much appreciate your help! You see how we learn from blogging and from one another? This is one very important reason I blog-to learn.
| From In the Garden |
Now for a bit more learning and research into this plant. When I Google 'running cedar' or lycopodium I find the results to be rather disappointing. There are a few results-mainly the websites have some pictures and do identify it but they don't give much information on the plant. I'd like to know a bit about the plant like its history and uses. I was able to find a listing in my Southern Living Garden Book! Kudos to Southern Living! The entry is very light on information concerning lycopodium but at least it was listed. Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants does not mention lycopodium at all. I also can't seem to find lycopodium in other books but I'm still looking. I am not sure if Lycopodium digitatum and complanatum are the same thing or not but they look to be the same on the websites I found listing them. I did find one website that said the old name was complanatum but that it is now digitatum but I'm not sure if it is a regional difference or not. Scientist I am not so I will stick with lycopodium, aka running cedar for this lovely groundcover.
One thing I am sure of is that this running cedar is in the Lycopodiaceae family. This family is known as a club moss family. Club mosses are fern allies. Fern allies grow in the same conditions as ferns but are not true ferns botanically speaking even though they reproduce by spores-they do not flower or grow seeds (this lycopodium also spreads by runners). Do you remember my post last spring about spike moss? Spike moss is in the family Selaginella and is also a fern ally. I find fern allies a fascinating group of plants and would like to grow them here in my garden. If you know more about running cedar or fern allies please weigh in on the issue so we can all learn. Thanks.
Be sure to visit Gail at Clay and Limestone for more Wildflower Wednesday posts....
in the garden....
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In the Garden