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Step softly among the water-dragons

2009 June 18

Lizard’s-tail flowers seem left over from prehistoric landscapes. Photo by Ken Moore.

By Ken Moore

Though I’ve never heard it used locally, the common name, water-dragon, appeals to me more than the commoner name, lizard’s-tail. Every time I see this plant of swamps, pond edges and boggy stream sides, my imagination propels me back to a long-ago world of giant ferns and dinosaurs. If you find yourself poised on the edge of a lizard’s-tail environs, step softly, and even then you will most likely become mired in the plant’s preferred muddy ooze.

Saururus (saw-REW-us) cernuus (SER-new-us) is a truly descriptive botanical name. The genus name is derived from the Greek sauros, lizard, and oura, tail, and the descriptive second part of the binomial, the species epithet, is derived from cernuus, drooping or nodding, which perfectly characterizes the appearance of a mature flowering spike.

Common throughout eastern America and across to Texas in the South, lizard’s-tail has a significant heritage as a medicinal plant. Root poultices were used to treat sores and wounds. Teas brewed from the leaves were thought to be helpful in reducing chest and back pains. There are recent accounts that some researchers are pursuing components of the plant as a potentially powerful tranquilizer. Perhaps more about this research will come to light in the next year or so.

For me, the plant needs no justification other than simply being. I’m always stopped in my tracks whenever seeing it in the wild, where it provides habitat for many wetland invertebrates. It’s an easily cultivated plant for the home wetland or bog garden, whether in pots in a small pool or in normally wet spots on the ground. Gardeners will be pleased to know that deer don’t like it, probably because it’s aromatic. Lizard’s-tail is described as being strongly scented of orange peel.

I have to work hard to grasp a hint of orange peel when crushing the flowers and leaves of a plant, though it does have a distinctively pungent aroma to my senses. When not in flower, the long heart-shaped leaves on zig-zag stems are an attractive bit of green architecture in the garden.

Pete Schubert’s bog garden in Durham brings affords “a closer look” at lizard’s-tail from the kitchen window. Photo by Ken Moore.

My favorite outside-of-nature place to enjoy lizard’s-tail is in the wild garden of Pete Schubert in southeast Durham. Every time I visit, I must contain my envy that I’m not as successful at duplicating nature all around my house as is Pete. Right now, his bog garden just outside the kitchen is a lizard’s-tail spectacle. In full flower for the past two weeks, Pete’s plants are far ahead of the several populations just now coming into flower along the loop trail around Big Oak Woods in the Mason Farm Biological Reserve. You’ll also find some lizard’s-tail along the Bolin Creek trails in the vicinity of Chapel Hill High School.

The several plantings in and around the Botanical Garden’s Totten Center are perhaps the most accessible site for seeing this engaging plant. Another easy viewing vantage point is by canoe and kayak; if you’re planning such an outdoors excursion in the next week or so, keep your eyes alert for the drooping flower stems along pond and river edges and that “closer look” is only a few paddles away!


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