Flowers In The Lawn

Lawns are a sure sign of the suburbs. On large expansive lots, they are de rigueur. Try to get by without one and the neighbors are sure to set you straight. It’s as if owning lots of land means that you have to devote large portions of it to a carpet of pure, flat greenness. (When I venture into the urban neighborhoods of Atlanta, the rules seem more flexible and I see a lot less lawn.)

Triodanis biflora, Venus's looking glass

From a native plant point of view, carpets of European fescue or Asian zoysia or African Bermuda grasses don’t offer our insects much benefit.  In addition, grass roots are tasty nursery foods for Japanese beetle grubs. Yuck, how can we support less of this approach?

Krigia virginica

You can reduce the amount of lawn you have. I’ve been shrinking my lawn over time and creating large planting beds for native shrubs and perennials. As the shrubs have gotten bigger, I’ve removed even more lawn to let them spread out. 

You can also allow flowering plants to share some of your lawn space, creating a bit of a pollinator lawn. With this idea on my mind, I examined my own lawn and that of my neighbors to see what flowering plants have already moved in and can tolerate the occasional mow.

Non-native clover, Trifolium repens

I was surprised to find a mixture of native and non-native plants. I already knew the low white clover (Trifolium repens) and dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) were not native and both are quite widespread. Other non-natives included black medick (Medicago lupulina), another member of the pea family that resembles Trifolium (clover). Bees do love these.

Yellow woodsorrel, Oxalis stricta

While we do have a native clover, it is not nearly as common as the alien.  

Oxalis is often called by the common name clover, but it is in a different family (Oxalidaceae). Common yellow woodsorrel is native to Georgia and you can find Oxalis stricta in many a lawn. I hope you like it - it's a perennial.

I also found a smaller dandelion-like flower that is native: Krigia virginica. It is more orange in color than dandelion and quite petite. It is an annual while the non-native is perennial. It also makes a tiny puffy seed head.

Another yellow flower in the lawn is dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis); it resembles the non-native mock strawberry (Duchesnea indica). This native dwarf cinquefoil is distinguished by having 5 leaves (compared to 3 for mock strawberry) and by not setting any strawberry-like fruit. It is aggressive, however, and perennial. I pull it out as needed and there is always plenty more.

Potentilla canadensis

Carolina bristle mallow (Modiola caroliniana)

Several doors down I found a new plant in abundance: Carolina bristle mallow (Modiola caroliniana). At the rate it was taking over that guy's lawn, I expect it to show up at my place in the next two years. It was a pretty red flower with the unique seed pods you'd expect on a mallow.

Clasping Venus's looking glass, Triodanis perfoliata

Close examination also found that the neighborhood has not one but two species of Venus's looking glass. Both are native and have gorgeous purple flowers. They are annuals.

Another small purple flower ended up being the non-native Mazus reptans. It is a perennial and a prolific seeder.

Non-native Mazus reptans

Buttercups were found  here and there. While we do have native members of the Ranunculus genus, I believe this common lawn flower is a non-native perennial one.

Of course the early spring lawn flowers are all gone now. We usually have native bluets (Houstonia), native violets (several kinds), non-native hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), non-native chickweed (which unfortunately gives our lovely native chickweed, Stellaria pubera, a bad name) and a few others.

Common dandelion with native bee

Whew! Who knew we had so many flowers in the lawn? In the name of diversity and pollinators, I'm all for keeping a few around. I like this approach - "give your lawn a taste of the wild" is an article that I found elsewhere. 

It gives me a great reason not to put herbicide on my lawn. I pull by hand the non-native plants or the especially aggressive native ones (yes, cinquefoil gets a bit excited). Others get to stay until nature (or the mower) takes them away.