Florida Betony

Florida betony develops ridged tubers that
look sorta like a rattlesnake tail and are edible.

Florida betony (Stachys floridana) is an aggressive perennial wildflower. Most botanists think that it was originally endemic to Florida, but now has spread to most of the Southeastern states from Virginia to Texas. It's a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and has the typical square stems and opposite leaves along the stems. The beautiful bilateral flowers range from whitish to purple arranged on a spike. It does best in damp soils.

The tubers are edible

It's also known rattlesnake weed because of its rattle-like tuber. Florida betony tubers are edible when harvested in the spring when they are firm and white, but only if the area has not been poisoned with lawn-care chemicals. They have the crispness of a water chestnut with a taste reminiscent of a very mild radish. Most people don't eat them later in the season when they turn tan or yellow and are not as crisp.

They are so tasty, that we included them as a crop in the first edition of "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida," but we eliminated it from the second edition because it's so aggressive that most people would never grow it as a crop.

The leaves are also edible, but I agree with Green Dean that they are "musty" and are best when mixed with other greens. 

Florida betony has beautiful lavender or whitish
flowers that attract lots of pollinators.

Use carefully in pollinator gardens

While the flowers are pretty and do attract a good variety of pollinators, this plant is so aggressive with its rhizomes and tubers, that it can crowd out other plants in a conventional garden. Mulching does nothing to deter this plant especially where it's moist. 

It's best used in meadows that are filled with tough bunching grasses and other tough perennials. It works well in roadside swales where it is mowed only once or twice a year. 

Some people recommend planting it in containers, which would control the roots & tubers, but it also self seeds.

Florida betony makes up a lot of the green in our 
freedom lawn during the winter when it's
rarely mowed.

Florida betony in lawns

Most of the online information on this plant is how to eliminate it from turf lawns. Even heavy, repeated applications of broad-leaf herbicides are not terribly effective because of those tubers.

The repeated applications of herbicides and other lawn pesticides rinses out of your property from the surface and through the soil and ends up in our streams, rivers, lagoons and damages those water ecosystems. My advice is to embrace the green in your lawns whatever it is and just mow what's there. 

For more information, here's its FNPS plant profile.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt