A Plant You Should Know: Meehania Cordata
by Barry Glick

ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED: 2000 Fall

When Thomas Meehan, a Philadelphia botanist, died in 1901, I'm sure he went to heaven feeling proud that Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859-1934) named a genus of plants in his honor. I'd also bet that he, like most people even today, didn't now how wonderful his namesake plant was.

Charles and Martha Oliver are proprietors of the Primrose Path Nursery in Scottdale, PA, and dear friends of mine. I'd noticed Meehania cordata listed in their catalog. After reading their description and hearing them extol the virtues of this charming little plant, I asked them to please bring me one on their upcoming visit to my nursery. I had requested one before, but it always seemed they were sold out. So I intimated that if they failed to bring one, they might end up sleeping in my barn on that chilly autumn night.

Tiarella, Heuchera and Heucherella are the main focus of the Oliver's breeding work, so we had planned a day of Tiarella hunting in Wolfpen Hollow, a hauntingly mysterious woodland area near my farm. We'd just descended a summit into the foggy creekbottom when I heard Charles laughing hysterically behind me. I turned to see what he found so amusing and saw him pointing to the ground. There, all around him, the ground was covered with Meehan's Mint: Meehania cordata.

Talk about getting caught not "practicing what you preach"! Me, who in all of my lectures on native plants makes a point of telling people to "look in your own backyard"! After I recovered from my embarrassment, we looked further and found that the entire west-facing slope of the hill down to the creek bed was a veritable carpet of dark, almost glossy green, cordate (heart shaped, hence the specific epithet, "cordata") leaves, vining over rocks and decaying tree limbs basking in the deep shade of the hemlock and oak woods above the water. I took some cuttings, not knowing whether they would root so late in the season; but, sure enough, they rooted in a matter of weeks.

The following June, I went back to observe the native flowers and found a sea of lilac, pink and lavender trumpet-like blooms at the tips of the stems. They reminded me very much of Scuttellaria, another member of the mint family and close relative of Meehania. I suspect that Meehania is hardy to zone 4, maybe even zone 3.

In my garden, now having many plants from the rooted cuttings that I overwintered under a dark bench in a poly tunnel (another testament to the virtues of Meehania is how deep a shade it thrives in), I proceeded to plant them under a small grove of lilacs and viburnums. They responded to the rich humus that had accumulated under these older shrubs and almost immediately started to wind their way around on the ground.

Meehania cordata is one of the best plants I can recommend for those dark and foreboding corners of the garden where there isn't enough light for most other plants. Even if it didn't have the added benefit of those really bright, colorful flowers, its foliage alone would qualify it as a very useful groundcover.

Barry Glick is proprietor of Sunshine Farm & Gardens, a mail-order nursery in Renick WV 24966. You can reach him at (304) 497-2208 or via sunfarm.com .

(TOP OF PAGE)