In Praise of Liriope and a Surprising Benefit of Drought

Somewhere out there in the landscaped area near your dwelling or bordering the woods by your home, grows the mundane liriope. I say "mundane" because this is what many people think of it, but it is in fact one of my favorite plants.

To landscape with liriope, also known as monkey-grass, is an old Georgia tradition.  I think Georgians must have invented the lirioped tree island. For non-natives, this is where you encircle an area of trees, usually pines, with liriope and you continually rake all the pine straw inside that ring of liriope, thus creating a "pine island." This is a practical way to deal with pine straw as well as give the homeowner less mowing to do.  

There are two types of liriope in Georgia yards. One is Liriope spicata. It has an aggressive rhizomatous root system. This is not the one you want to use as a border or outline because it will creep all over your yard and you will end up with a liriope yard. If you happen to want a yard that doesn’t need mowing, this is the plant for you, but you’ll need to keep it from creeping onto your neighbor’s property. Liriope spicata is particularly useful on slopes that need erosion control.

There is another version of liriope known as Liriope muscari. This is the well-behaved liriope, staying pretty much in a nice little clump. This is your border liriope. 

Liriope is the only plant I know of that you can literally throw down, or inadvertently drop, and it just seems to agreeably say “This is fine. I like it here.  Go away now and never tend to me again.” It controls erosion. It grows where nothing else will grow. It has a pretty purple flower stalk. This plant goes into my “Like” category of plants for its hardiness, independence and resistance to drought. Speaking of drought…. 

I watched this wonderful webinar recently that was sponsored by Southern Regional Extension Forestry, called, “Understanding Your Remarkable Riparian Areas;" riparian meaning that area between a stream/river and the land. Riparian areas are essential to the water quality of cities, suburbs and rural areas because they act as natural bio-filters, filtering pollutants, agricultural runoff and so forth. They host a diverse array of amphibians, insects, birds, and mammals.

The speaker for this webinar said something I had never heard. She said, "Droughts are essential" (to riparian areas). She said that in the formation of these special zones, this weather element, or as we commonly see it, this weather catastrophe, influences vegetation, forcing plants to send their roots down deep in search of water. When they find this water they are sustained, they hold in place and they become the basis for a healthy riparian ecosystem. 

I have been trying to extrapolate this to my own yard, but to be honest, the best example I can think of is my mother's yard (Hi Mom!). Mother has a collection of fine and rare Japanese maples, mostly thanks to me. One day she happened to tell me, proudly, that she waters them daily in warm weather. Hey, no disrespect here, she's just loving her trees and is a great nurturer. Problem is, she's denying those trees the opportunity to send their roots deep in search of water. A lot of tree roots do stay near the ground surface naturally, but they'll all stay near the ground surface if they get watered every day. Now my mom knows to back off a bit and love them by not watering every day. They'll send some of their roots down deep to find water which will further act to anchor the tree so it isn't blown over in the next thunderstorm.