Lizard Tails, May 28
The Greenway trail passes through an area that is usually covered with a few inches of water. But sometimes, especially in the winter when it hasn’t rained for a while, the water drains and it looks like the muddy bottom has nothing growing on it. When it rains, water again covers the ground and as spring approaches, strange plants emerge, ones that I had never seen before I moved to this part of North Carolina. As the season progresses, the stalks of these plants grow taller and taller with leaves going every which way. The plants grow so thick and dense that they hide the ground. By the end of May, curious long white blossoms form near the tops of the plants, making a sharp contrast to the green of the leaves. The blossoms are long, but bend in a graceful arch making the area look like it’s covered with thousands of question marks.
The plants are so thick that nothing else grows there. Acres and acres of white hook-like flowers poke up from a dense base of foliage. By June, the blossoms are quite fragrant. In fact, I can smell them from the head of the trail at least a quarter of a mile away. The scent of the flowers is attractive, light and pleasant, even at close range, and flies and bees are busy collecting whatever it is that the flowers have. They are called, Lizard Tails, with the scientific name of Saururus cernuus (which is Greek for lizard tails). These plants are native to most of the New England states of the U.S. and are now found growing west to Wisconsin, and Kansas and South to Florida and out to Texas. Lizard Tails are the only member of its genus growing in North America, but it has a sister species that grows in Asia named Saururus chinensis. The Asian plant looks similar to our indigenous one except it has pointed leaves that are splotched with patches of white.
Other common names for the plant are Swamp Lily, Water-dragon or Swamp Root because, like the names imply, they like to grow in damp freshwater areas like swamps, marshes, and low woods as well as the banks of rivers and streams. Lizard Tails grow from underground runners. While they will not grow in areas that have permanent water, they can live in up to 4 inches of water for a long time providing habitat for small aquatic animals like crayfish, salamanders, turtles and frogs. The plants also reproduce from seeds, but have shallow horizontal rhizomes which turn upward every 1 to 2 feet to reach the surface and which produce new stems. Underground, from the junctions of the rhizome segments, fibrous roots grow. The plants on the Greenway are successful spreaders and have colonized an even larger area than they had inhabited last year. They not only grow on land that is moist, but they even tried to cross the trail and grow on land that is shaded, but not particularly wet. These plants eventually failed to thrive.
Lizard Tail plants grow straight up from the ground and can grow to be a meter to 4 feet tall. The leaves can reach a width of 4 inches and up to 6 inches in length. They can be either arrowhead, or heart shaped, and are on stalks that alternate on the stem, to which they are joined by a clasp called a basal sheath. Lizard Tails are perennial herbs which means that they do not have a woody stem and die down when the season ends. They can survive in temperatures down to 20 ° F. They are glabrous, meaning they are smooth rather than hairy, and have very few, if any, branches although the leaves grow in a zig zag pattern which increases the density of the foliage.
The flowers of the Lizard Tails are the most unique things about these plants. These grow on top of the plants on a thick 6 to 8 inch spike. Hundreds of tiny bright white flowers grow on the single spike which resembles a bottle brush because the spike tapers to a point. The spike is so long, and is so heavy with flowers that it bends over in a graceful arch. Individual flowers are tiny. They are without petals or sepals and consist of only 4 to 8 white filaments, (the male part of a plant), a white ovary (the fruit producing part of the plant) and a tiny white stalk. The aroma of the flowers attracts a lot of flies and bees. Once the ovary is fertilized, the flower produces a small green fruit that becomes wrinkled and brown as it matures. Each fruit contains several smooth brown seeds. Flowers mature from the base to the top of the stalk straightening the stalk in time. When all flowers are mature, sometime in the fall, the flower stalk is completely covered with tight brown seed capsules that to some resemble the scales of a reptile’s tail. That’s how the plant got its name.
Although the aroma of crushed leaves and stems have been described as citrus or sassafras-like, the plant is not good for humans to eat. However, turtle, wood ducks and beavers have been seen munching on the leaves. In fact, one study found that beavers in one location ate so many plants that they reduced the Lizard Tail colony by 45%. Additionally, these plants have great value for our environment. Lizard Tails provide shelter for fish, turtles, frogs, crayfish and invertebrates like freshwater mussels, and snails. They even provide shelter for microinvertebrates which are too small to be seen with the naked eye. As the plants decay each year, they decompose with the help of fungi and bacteria, and provide food for aquatic invertebrates. Lizard Tails are invaluable in filtering water that moves into our rivers and creeks. The plants reduce pollution from fertilizers and grass clipping, and acts as a buffer that stabilizes the edges of ponds.
Lizard Tails have no nutritional or edible value for humans, and there are no records of people trying to eat the plant, however they were seen to have medicinal use. Early European settlers found the plant useful as an anti-inflammatory, poultice, stomachic and sedative. The Chocktaw and Cherokee tribes used a poultice made from the plant’s roasted roots to treat back pain. The Seminole tribe used this plant to treat rheumatism, body aches and fevers. A paste made from boiled and mashed roots can help flesh wounds heal and a tea made from the dried leaves of the Lizard Tail plant was used to treat back, breast and stomach aches.
During my research I came across an odd article linking lizard tails to marijuana claiming that smoking the two of them together gave one a heightened, euphoric high. On further investigation, the authors believed that people were smoking tails from actual reptilian lizards rather than smoking this plant. However Lizard Tails, the plant, has been used as a sedative, so I wonder if the researchers were just confused and got the plant and the animal mixed up. Do people really add some of this plant to their medicinal marijuana? Maybe someone reading this has more information about this.
Interested in more information about this fascinating plant? Here are my references. After the references, you can continue to read a short paragraph about where turtles go when the ponds dry up.
Sujit Sarkhel, et al, The American Journal on Addictions, Vol 20 (2) Jan 1, 2011 “Does Lizard Tail Lacing Heighten Cannabis Addiction?” https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/wiley/does-lizard-tail-lacing-heighten-cannabis-addiction-8p0jVOsnNH#:~:text=for%20subsequent%20use.-,According%20to%20the%20patient%2C%20smoking%20cannabis%20laced%20with%20lizard%20tail,my%20head%20feels%20very%20light.
Susan Patterson , “Lizard’s Tail Care – Learn About Growing Lizard’s Tail Plants” https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/water-plants/lizards-tail/growing-lizards-tail-plants.htm
University of Texas, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center , Plant Database, “Saururus cernuus” https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=sace
University of Florida, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, “Saururus cernuus” https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/saururus-cernuus/
Sid Vogelpohl, Arkansas Native Plant Society, “Know Your Natives – Lizard’s Tail” July 2015 https://anps.org/2015/07/08/know-your-natives-lizards-tail/
Prince William Conservation Alliance, “Lizard’s Tail: Saururus cernuus, Saururaceae family” http://www.pwconserve.org/plants/lizardstail.html#:~:text=Lizard’s%20Tail%20has%20many%20traditional,flies%20visit%20flowers%20for%20nectar
Kenneth Boone, Lake Martin Alabama Edition, Lake Magazine, “Lizard’s Tails” https://www.lakemagazine.life/nature_of_the_lake/lizards-tails/article_70ea9332-d03b-11ea-ba83-334e0c6a2beb.html
Mark Vorderbruggen, Know What Your Ancestors Knew, Foraging Texas, “Lizard’s Tail” https://www.foragingtexas.com/2005/09/lizards-tail.html
Patterson Clark, Washington Post, Urban Jungle, “Securing the lizard’s tails of Huntley Meadows”, June 2011, https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/urban-jungle/summer-2011/index.html
Sun Journal, “Lizard’s tail is one of the ‘good guys’”, May 2017, https://www.newbernsj.com/story/lifestyle/home-garden/2017/05/26/lizards-tail-is-one-of-good-guys/20782252007/
Kenneth Boone, Lake Magazine, Lake Martin Alabama Edition, “Lizard’s Tails”, Jul 2020, https://www.lakemagazine.life/nature_of_the_lake/lizards-tails/article_70ea9332-d03b-11ea-ba83-334e0c6a2beb.html#:~:text=Wood%20ducks%20and%20beavers%20are,Tail%20population%20by%2045%20percent
This next paragraph has to do with pond turtles. If you are only interested in wildflowers, please skip:
Parts of the Greenway trail go through land that is wet or muddy most of the year, and over these, the county has kindly built boardwalks which allow hikers and bikers to safely pass by without wetting their feet or damaging their shoes or getting their bikes stuck in the mud. One of these areas is completely covered with water for most of the time so Lizard Tails can’t grow there. When it dries out, as it did in June, absolutely nothing was growing there. Seeing the dried pond alarmed me because when filled with water, it is home to numerous turtles that climb onto a fallen tree limb to bask in the sun. These turtles are different from the box turtles that eat Mayapple fruit. Those are fully terrestrial and live in the woods. Research says that the ones in the pond are most likely a bunch of Yellow Bellied Sliders. Yellow Bellied Sliders are semi-aquatic but are known for their sunbathing habit. While they love water, they also travel on land to lay their eggs and to hibernate. Turtles are reptiles, which mean that they are cold blooded or ectothermic, and rely on the environment to reach their optimal body temperature for their metabolisms. So in the spring when temperatures are cold and Yellow Bellied Sliders are sitting like lumps on the log, they are actually hard at work heating up their body temperatures. Whenever they feel threatened they just slide under the water and hide. But where do they go when the pond dries up? Continued research assured me that when “their aquatic habitat becomes inadequate”, they either move to another wet spot, or go back to their hibernation sites until conditions improve. Whew! Another thing that I don’t have to worry about.
Oxbow River Snorkeling & Back Country Adventures, “Freshwater Invertebrates of Western North Carolina”, https://www.oxbowriversnorkeling.com/freshwater-invertebrates.html#:~:text=FRESHWATER%20INVERTEBRATES%20OF%20WESTERN%20NORTH%20CAROLINA&text=This%20includes%20crayfishes%2C%20insects%2C%20snails%2C%20worms%2C%20and%20mussels.
Avannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, “Yellow Bellied Slider Turtle Fact Sheet” https://archive-srel.uga.edu/outreach/factsheet/slider.html
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