I found a mystery plant growing among my Asiatic lilies and
daffodils, and had to research it to figure out what it was. First, I noticed that its flowers and stalk
were similar to those of ground ivy (creeping charlie). I had recently learned
that ground ivy was a near relative of mint, which completely made sense in
light of its strong odor and invasive nature, plus its stem shape. I put a photo of the plant on Facebook, and
my friend Helga thought it looked like ajuga, which I also have in my
yard. It really was similar to ajuga,
but the leaves were the wrong shape, but then I found out that ajuga is also in
the family Lamiaceae, along with mint. Aha! So I started looking into other
plants in Lamiaceae, but it’s a huge family.
But I knew I was on the right track. Finally, after looking at lots of
categories of Lamiaceae, I hit upon some combination of key words that led me
to the answer: Salvia lyrata, also known as lyre-leaf sage, a native wildflower. I forget how I finally figured it out
exactly, but I think I tried looking for lobe-leafed salvias and spotted it.
Anyway, I am happy to figure it out. The information I read indicates that it
reseeds easily and can be invasive, but since it’s a native flowering plant I
think I’m OK with that. That’s what I
want.
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| Salvia lyrata |
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