Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Saturday - December 20, 2008
From: Landisburg, PA
Region: Mid-Atlantic
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant called crows foot/feet used to make wreaths at Christmas
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
In Pennsylvania there was a green ground hugging vine I knew as "crow's feet/foot" we used in the 1950s at Christmas time for wreaths and window and door borders. It looked like a cluster of bird's feet and grew in long vines. What is the proper name of this wild plant?ANSWER:
Mr. Smarty Plants has come up with two possibilities for plants with "crowfoot/feet" or "crow's foot/feet" as part of their common names. These are:Lycopodium digitatum (fan clubmoss) called Crowfoot Club-moss in Hort.net. Here are more photos.
Sedum ternatum (woodland stonecrop) called Crow's Feet in East Tennessee Wildflowers. Here are more photos.
These both occur in Pennsylvania and though not technically vines, they are both trailing low-growing evergreen plants.
If neither of these is the plant you remember, please send us more description or photographs if you have them (see Ask Mr. Smarty Plants' Plant Identification page for instructions on submitting photos).
Mr. Smarty Plants would be very interested to know if either of these is the plant you used for making wreaths.
More Plant Identification Questions
Identification of giant lilies
October 12, 2007 - I have giant lilies that I can't identify. The bulbs are about 4" in diameter, the leaves are 4 ft long. The flowers of the pink emerge only in the early summer, the flowers of the red emerge in s...
view the full question and answer
Plant Identification
May 01, 2009 - Curious about the identification of the foxglove-looking plants flowering along the railroad tracks that parallel Lancaster in Handley. Some are white while others are purple. Leaves are about 2-3 inc...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification in Michigan
May 26, 2010 - We are trying to identify a plant in our yard. It is seven inches tall in May, grows to about knee high, has red leaves, flowers in late June, early July. The flower is light pink. It is a perennia...
view the full question and answer
Plant identification
August 26, 2011 - I have found a small tree like plant that is small and the stem or trunk was thin and the leaves look like fern leaves. I also found a larger one it was thicker and closer to the ground the leaves wer...
view the full question and answer
Identification of flower that looks like Callirhoe in NC
June 12, 2012 - Have a flower similar to callirhoe, but the blossum is fuchia, not purple and the foliage is light sage in color and fuzzy. It is very invasive. What is it? If you have an email address, I can send...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |