Wildflower Wednesday: Dicliptera brachiate

Some of my favorite wildflowers are those I've chanced upon while I was out walking in my neighborhood, the greenway or a local park. Unknown plants in flower are magnets for me! I need to get close and try to id them. That's how I met our Wildflower Wednesday star. A  tiny pink/lavender flower tempted me to stop and check out the massed greenery were it was growing in a weedy ditch. I had never seen it before, but there was something familiar about the plant that made me think of Ruellia strepens/smooth wild petunia. Although the flowers are very different, the almost square stems, opposite leaves and position of the flowers were a great help in starting my search in the Acanthaceae family.

So, I took a cutting home to study.

I was able to id our star as Dicliptera brachiate, aka, branched foldwing, false mint, or wild mudwort. And yes, it is a member of the Acanthaceae family.

As an aside, each plant, tree or shrub belongs in a plant family. Learning the characteristics of a plant family can go a long way in helping one id a wildflower. If you want to learn more, start with a few plant families. I suggest Asteraceas (Daisy family), Fabaceae (Bean family) and Lamiaceae (mint) they have easier to identify characteristics. (quote from earlier post)

Unless you are like me, a ditch watching naturalist looking for plant treasures, you might have assumed that the mass of plants were just weeds. When I say mass, I really mean it. There was a dense stand along the bank of the ditch/small creek with Phytolacca americana/pokeweed, non native Asian dayflower, smartweed and other moisture loving plants. What a treasure trove of plants!

Most of the mystery plant were in full sun and sun scorched, but those tiny pink flowers  beckoned to me. My fingers were crossed in the hope that they were a native and not an invasive.

Sun scorched from too much sun and too little water

Dicliptera brachiate is a native in more than a dozen counties in Tennessee, including Davidson county, which is where I live. Not only is it native to Tennessee, but it's also  native to Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas,  Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.  

How is it that I've never come across it?  

I suspect that biologists that spend a great deal of time on river floodplains are very familiar with it. Not so much the rest of us. It is a rather robust herb, about 1.5 feet tall, with several branches (most of which are ascending and stiff/straight). The scattered leaves are opposite, with very long petioles, often 2 inches long or more. The leaves are oval shaped and opposite, with pointed tips. The flowers are in axillary clusters, some sessile but others on pedicels. The flowers are unique with two "lips" (technically the flowers are in 5 parts), bright rose to rose-pink in color and a spread about 3/4-inch from top to bottom. One of the lips folds under, thus the sweet name, foldwing. The stamens and pistil extend beyond the flower throat. (source)

Foldwing prefers a rich, moist soil in partial shade and in the wild it occurs on the banks of streams and rivers, and in hardwood floodplain forests or in this case, a wet weather ditch. It has been described as both an annual and a perennial, either way, it can reseed prolifically. It would make a nice plant for a rain garden, if you don't mind it en masse, but, this is not a plant for a small garden with rich, moist soil....unless you want a ground cover.

Of note: Our star's fruit is a capsule that releases the seed by flinging it far away from the parent plant. It doesn't need wind or animals for spreading the seed. This seed dispersal is technically called explosive dehiscence. Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. (source) Consequently, plants can show up all over a garden. Which explains why one blogger wrote that she would never plant it again.

According to one website it's a host plant for both Eastern Tailed Blue Butterfly and the Texan Crescent Butterfly. It also attracts small bees and hummingbirds. There were no butterfly or bees on the plants, but there was this one little out of focus critter that I only noticed when I downloaded the photo.

Ditches and creek banks are a treasure trove for those who notice wildflower where ever they happen to be walking. But, it's just a weedy patch to others, especially those whose job it is to keep the grounds/yards cleaned and mowed. 

This ditch watching naturalist on the lookout for native plant treasures hopes that posts like this, my First Wednesday Wildlife Challenge and a host of other fabulous nature writers like Jo Brichetto/Sidewalk Nature will encourage more people to check out the edges of their yards and along the ditches and creeks in their neighborhoods to see if they can find and identify wildflowers. I know they're in Hillwood where I live.

Photo by Richard and Teresa Ware

 I was thrilled to find it thriving earlier this summer. I changed my walking routine to pass it every morning to see it in bloom. But, I wasn't sure how long it would be standing before the mow and blow brigade that takes care of the property along that creek would see it as weedy and mow it down. That happened last week, but they didn't mow it all down. Whew! Let's see how the rest of the summer proceeds. I would like to try to collect seeds.

My Gardener Says Blog

I love this plant and wish I had the garden conditions to keep it happy. In the meantime I'll enjoy it by the ditch/creek... As long as it's there. xoxo, gail

The Particulars  

Botanical name: Dicliptera brachiate

Common Name:  branched foldwing, false mint, or wild mudwort

Type: Herbacious perennial or annual

Family: Acanthaceae

Native Range: source

Hardiness Zone: 4 to 8

Height: 12 inches to 30 inches depending upon the site

Bloom Time: August to October

Flower: Diminutive pink, white or light purple 2 cm long

Leaf: Ovate and opposite leaves

Fruit: Capsule,  2–valved, to 4–seeded in 2 chambers, explosively dehiscent*

Description: It's reseeds prolifically and can be somewhat pesky, so consider the most appropriate location for it.

Sun: Semi shade

Water: Medium water use, keep the soil moist

Maintenance: Keep moist and remove seedlings.

Comments: A cutie patootie native plant that would look delightful as a groundcovering plant in a moist space in your woodland garden or along the banks of a wetland area. Be aware that it can reseed vigorously.

Welcome to Clay and Limestone and Wildflower Wednesday.  This day is about sharing wildflowers and other native plants no matter where one gardens~the UK, tropical Florida, Europe, Australia, Africa, South America, India or the coldest reaches of Canada. It doesn't matter if we sometimes share the same plants. How they grow and thrive in your garden is what matters most.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.