''Pachysandra procumbens'', the Allegheny pachysandra or Allegheny spurge, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the family

Buxaceae The Buxaceae are a small family of six genera and about 123 known species of flowering plants. They are shrubs and small trees, with a cosmopolitan distribution. A seventh genus, sometimes accepted in the past (''Notobuxus''), has been shown b ...

, native to the

southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

from

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

south to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, and west to

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

. The name ''Allegheny'' is sometimes spelled ''Alleghany''. It is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

subshrub A subshrub ( Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their ...

, growing to at most 30 cm high, usually less. The leaves are 5–10 cm long, with a coarsely toothed margin. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

s are small, white, produced several together on a terminal

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the sh ...

2–3 cm long.

Description

''Pachysandra procumbens'' is a shrubby ground cover which grows 8-12" tall and spreads indefinitely by rhizomes to form a dense carpet of matte blue-green leaves mottled with purple and white. It is native to woodlands from North Carolina and Kentucky south to Florida and Texas. Ovate to suborbicular leaves (to 3" long) are coarsely toothed at the apex but untoothed at the base. Leaves are typically deciduous in USDA Zones 5 and 6 but semi-evergreen to evergreen in Zones 7 to 9. Even where evergreen, the leaves may appear worn and tattered by mid winter. Tiny, fragrant, greenish white to white flowers bloom in terminal spikes (2-4" long) in early spring before the new leaves arrive. Genus name comes is in reference to the male parts of the flower (thick stamens). Specific epithet from Latin means trailing in reference to the rhizomatous ground cover habit. It spreads slowly to form a dense carpet 8-10” tall. Allegheny pachysandra performs well in a variety of soils from moist to dry and a range of soil pH as long as it is growing in partial to full shade. This woodland plant is also considered by many to be very deer and drought resistant.

Gallery

Image:Alleghany Pachysandra Pachysandra procumbens Leaf Cluster 3008px.JPG, A leaf cluster Image:Alleghany Pachysandra Pachysandra procumbens Leaves 3008px.JPG, Leaves Image:Alleghany Pachysandra Pachysandra procumbens Closeup 3008px.JPG, Closeup of the leaves File:Pachysandra procumbens.jpg, Closeup of flower

References

* Buxaceae Flora of the Southeastern United States Rhizomatous plants Stoloniferous plants Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{eudicot-stub