Frogfruit, Turkey Tangle Fogfruit, Capeweed, Matchweed, Match Head are among the common names this little groundcover, Phyla nodiflora,is known as. My preference is match head since the flower resembles the old fashioned kitchen match.
The clover-like leaves grow on prostrate hairy stems that make long runners allowing it to spread to create a mat. It will grow to about 1-3 inches in height; to 6 inches when in flower. The flowers are purple and white growing at the tip of a long stalk.
This plant is native to most of the lower United States. It is a member of the family Verbenaceae, as are lantana, blue porterweed, and the Verbena. In nature you will find it along the roadsides and trails. I don't think we have ever taken a plant walk where it wasn't recorded. The plant makes an easy alternate to grass; it is probably already growing in most yards. Weed the weeds instead of the grass and soon you will have a hardy area that can be walked on, mowed, or left to flower. We definitely tested its characteristic of growing in nutrient poor soils. When the sidewalks were completed at Cedar Point the berm looked like it was almost liquid cement. We didn't want grass; we wanted something what could handle this area without soil augmentation. Phyla nodiflora was our answer. It is easy to transplant, roots come out from the leaf nodes. I pulled some from my yard, planted them directly in the poor soil and they took off.
If you don't want to convert your yard, consider cultivating a small patch for the flowers. It is an attractive plant rambling over boulders or the edges of hanging baskets. The plant is the larval host plant for the common buckeye, Junonia coenia, phaon crescent, Phyciodes phaon, and white peacock, Anartia jatrophae butterflies and a nectar plant for a wide variety of other pollinators.
REFERENCES:
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants. Phyla nodiflora www.florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=3520
Natives for your Neighborhood, Phyla nodiflora www.regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Phylnodi
L.B. McCarty and D.L. Colvin. Weeds of Southern Turfgrasses. Fla. Coop. Ext. Serv., Gainesville, FL. 1992. p.194.
Photos by Denny Girard