This year’s Plant Native Day is focused on vines and groundcovers. We have been scouting out vines. On one of our work days at the garden we noticed a vine growing along the driveway…what was it? The only thing we could really identify was leaves of three—was it a strange poison ivy? We decided to let it be. About a month later I was walking out to my car with Al and Denny. The leaves-of-three vine was now covering most of the plants along the section of the driveway opposite the parking spaces. Denny said Do you know what that is? I replied No. Snoutbean, he says, I’ll send you a picture of it.
Snoutbean, Rhynchosia minima is a member of the Fabaceae family; its fruit is a hairy bean that turns black when ripe. It has six to twelve flowers on a slender stalk. With these yellow flowers and its trifoliate oval to round leaves it is a very attractive plant. Two butterfly larvae, the Silver-spotted Skipper and the Ceraunus Blue use it as a host plant.
However it obviously can become very invasive, reminds me of Balsam apple the way it was covering all the plants in its area. Guess we will add it to the list with the caveat that it can grow out of control.
By the way, if anyone has plants or seeds of any of the native Clematis they would like to share, please call me, Jane Wallace at 697-4276 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . These are beautiful plants but I'm having little success in finding them in native nurseries.
Reference:
Online Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants, Rhynchosia minima: http://www.florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=2782
Photo by Denny Girard