White Moneywort: A Low-Maintenance Ground Cover with a Wandering Spirit
Meet white moneywort (Alysicarpus vaginalis), a petite but persistent little plant that’s quietly made itself at home across much of the southern United States. While it might not win any beauty contests, this unassuming ground cover has some interesting qualities that might just surprise you.
What Exactly is White Moneywort?
White moneywort is a small herbaceous plant that botanists classify as a forb – basically, it’s a soft-stemmed plant without any woody parts above ground. It can behave as either an annual or perennial depending on your climate, and it has a low, spreading growth habit that hugs the ground.
The plant produces delicate compound leaves and small pink to purple flowers that cluster together in elongated arrangements. While individually tiny, these blooms can create a subtle carpet of color when the plant is happy in its surroundings.
Where You’ll Find It Growing
Originally hailing from tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and Africa, white moneywort has become a naturalized resident across the southeastern United States. You can find it growing in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, as well as in several U.S. territories including Guam, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Interestingly, this adaptable little plant shows different preferences depending on where it’s growing. In most regions, it’s equally happy in wet or dry conditions, but in Hawaii, it strongly prefers upland areas and rarely ventures into wetlands.
The Good, The Bad, and The Practical
Reasons you might want to grow white moneywort:
- Extremely low maintenance – practically grows itself
- Drought tolerant once established
- Provides some food value for wildlife (large animals get 10-25% of their diet from it, while smaller mammals and birds use it for about 5-10% of their meals)
- Can handle poor soils that other plants might struggle with
- Offers occasional cover for small animals
Reasons you might want to think twice:
- It’s not native to North America and can spread readily on its own
- Limited ornamental value – it’s more functional than beautiful
- Can self-seed and pop up in unexpected places
- Better native alternatives exist for most landscaping purposes
Growing Conditions and Care
If you do decide to give white moneywort a try, you’ll find it refreshingly undemanding. This plant thrives in USDA hardiness zones 8-11 and prefers full sun to partial shade conditions.
The beauty of white moneywort lies in its ability to tolerate neglect. It handles poor soils with grace and becomes quite drought-tolerant once its roots are established. In fact, you might find that the biggest challenge is keeping it where you want it, rather than getting it to grow in the first place.
Wildlife and Pollinator Benefits
While white moneywort won’t be the star of your pollinator garden, its small flowers do attract some attention from bees and smaller butterflies. The plant’s real wildlife value comes from its role as a food source – it provides a modest but consistent contribution to the diets of various animals, from large mammals down to small birds.
Consider Native Alternatives
Before planting white moneywort, consider exploring native ground covers that offer similar low-maintenance benefits while supporting local ecosystems more effectively. Native alternatives like wild strawberry (Fragaria species), partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), or regional native sedges can provide better ecological value while still giving you that easy-care ground cover you’re looking for.
The Bottom Line
White moneywort is one of those plants that falls into the it’s fine, but… category. It’s not going to cause ecological havoc, but it’s also not going to be the hero of your garden story. If you’re dealing with a difficult spot where nothing else seems to want to grow, and you don’t mind a plant with modest looks and a tendency to wander, white moneywort might just fit the bill. Just remember – sometimes the most interesting gardens are built with plants that truly belong to the place they’re growing.
