Drymaria cordata
(Drymos is Greek for forest. Cordata means heart-shaped.)
Caryophyllaceae (The Carnation Family)
It was Halpatioke Park near Stuart, Florida, today for John and me. We could talk about the dazzling Cardinal Airplants, or the gnarly Live Oaks overhanging the river, but nawww, how about a crummy little turf weed that sticks in your cuff? So much more exciting!
Drymary sprawling
Drymary is an around-the-world weed. Native to Florida? Hard to be sure, some informed observers say yes, others deny. There are no Florida collections of it before around 1900, but then again, easy to ignore. The stems mostly creep forth, loving moisture, happy in sol or sombra. Sometimes they tower vertically to 8 inches, especially at flowering time. It must reach up to deposit its seedheads on a passing possum.
I like weeds because we step on them daily, but if we stop, look, think, and Google they offer as much good botany as tropical tourism.
People like to eat this weed. Why!? Go to Publix and buy tofu jerky instead. Some folks think plants come in two varieties…edible and inedible. That’s not very nuanced, sort of like saying boys sort into good boys and bad boys. Fact is, most wild plants have chemical defenses against herbivory. So before you get out the Asian Sesame Dressing, here is a discouraging word, “The flower, fruit, seed and root have given very weak positive reactions for the presence of haemolytic saponin.” Does the “very weak” comfort your apprehensions? Do you feel lucky?
So then, if you don’t eat it, what’s Drymary good for? How about smoking it? The plant has a pleasant fragrance, and yes, it has been smoked. I might have puffed some except for two things—a trip to the gas station for medical marijuana rolling papers. And, well, there’s this, “Topical application must be done with caution as prolonged treatment causes burning.”
Stem with glandular hairs
So the best enjoyment of Drymary is nonconsumptive. The stems have a coat of stiff hairs tipped with glistening droplets. Maybe that is where the fragrance resides. In any case, why all those sticky hairs? Probably protection, maybe from ground-dwelling pests, and/or sun-baking. Obvious possibilities, but there is more.
When your pants cuff drags through the meadow the seed-heads snap off along with a short stem fragment. The seed head itself has hairs, and the stem fragment acts like Velcro. So, maybe then possession of a protective hairy stem was pressed into service secondarily as a dispersal aid. This is the one Drymaria species, out of almost 50, spread all around the globe.
My shirt with Velcro-stuck seed heads.
There’s another oddity. Between the two opposed plate-shaped flat leaves, immediately below their bases, is a set of twisty-pointy Halloween fingers. (Vocabularious readers may recognize these as stipules.) We then ask in unison, what do those fingers contribute to the well being of the weed?
Funky fingers immediately below the leaf pairs. What good are they?
My first idea favored preventing soil buggies from climbing to make pests of themselves. Okay barricades maybe, but I went outside, plopped down on my sixpack abs, got the Velcro heads on my shirt, and saw something more interesting:
Little gem on the paired leaves just above the fingers.
The paired leaves collect water on their top surfaces, capturing beautiful glistening drops in the angle where the two leaves meet immediately above the fingers. Do the fingers have something to do with holding the water a little longer, or influencing its drainage and distribution? Maybe they help support the drop before it slithers down between the leaf bases, or more likely (and observed), as the drop falls between the bases, it can catch in the fingers. Could the snag help the plant retain moisture? I don’t know, but pretty to contemplate, if you like sprawling on the ground with fire ants and curious neighbors. Your choice.
Droplet clinging to the fingers, or vice versa.
John Bradford
George Rogers
George Rogers
Dee Staley
Treasure Coast Natives 