PlantFiles: Florida Betony
Stachys floridana

It's difficult to accept that Florida Betony (Stachys floridana) is in the same genus as Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina) -- the first is despised and the other prized in most gardens.

To be fair, the Florida Betony does make a pretty pink/purple flower stalk about 4 inches high and can be attractive when grown in thick clusters (which, as noted above, is very easy to do!). It might actually make a nice ornamental plant in a garden where it could be grown as an annual, and either kept in a pot, or left in the ground to be killed by freezing temperatures in winter so that it wouldn't spread.

Florida Betony can be controlled by a thick mulch of pine straw. Some of it will come up through the pine straw, but it will gradually weaken if the top green shoots are consistently pulled off. It can not be eliminated without digging out every portion of the (edible, like a wild radish, bumpy, small white carrot-like) tuber. It will regrow from any portion of the tuber and spread by underground rhizomes.

Jeremy

this is very invasive and very hard to eliminate. Has even grown thru my black landscape fabric.

Florida betony is incredibily invasive, spreading by rhizomes, tubers, and seeds. It grows thick as the hairs on a dog's back. Mow it and it looks like green grass in the winter. I thought it had no redeeming qualities at all, until I found this:

"http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/UW152

The tuberous roots are edible and sometimes boiled like peanuts. Use as a food is well noted among southeast U.S. Indian tribes and settlers of Florida's early history, as well as today by many nature enthusiasts."

this is very invasive here ! one of our worst weeds