Although I have a number of books and am always interested in unusual plants, this one has had me stumped for a long time. I have yet to come across it in a nursery, but it seems like it pops up everywhere as a weed, where I live. People here call it Chickweed, but I can't find it under that name. The remarkable thing about this plant is, I've found it really holds up great to dog (pet) traffic. The leaves grow on underground vine shoots and spring right back after paw trampling, and it seems to ignore dog urine. It's about the only thing holding its own under their feet. The flowers appear in spring and are surprisingly exotic, they look almost like tiny orchids. As I have two dogs, I'd love to find it in bulk seed and I'd seed my whole backyard. I can't even find it on the internet anywhere. What the heck is this?
I"m amazed. I have an encylopedia of plants "American Horticultural Society A-Z" by Christopher Brickell, 1100 pages with 15,000 entries. It goes from Glaucium to Gleditsia, Glechoma isn't even in there. I wonder why?? It seems like such a common plant. I guess I have an excuse for not seeing its picture in there!
Apparently its an escaped herb from Scotland, they used to garden it but it has gone wild here by 'accident'. They called it Alehoof there and was used for making beer. http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-herb-information/alehoof.html Whew!?? Well, all this learning has given me a headache.....a beer doesn't sound too bad.....(!)
