Amble and Muse

Plant Profile: Hudsonia tomentosa

[fa icon="calendar"] Mar 30, 2017 3:46:19 PM / by Kate Cholakis


Getting to Know Woolly Hudsonia
[Also known as sand false heather, woolly beach-heather, and poverty grass]

Hudsonia tomentosa is gray and brown for much of the year. A woody, evergreen, low shrub, this plant roots firmly in the sandy soils of coastal dunes. It crouches low in response to desiccating winds and salt spray, and prefers the backdune, which provides some shelter. Its ruggedness is necessary: the environmental conditions are harsh. Woolly hudsonia does what it needs to stay alive here. There is suspicion that it releases root toxins to discourage the growth of plants that might shade it out if allowed to thrive. This subshrub, which looks more like a groundcover, needs full sun. Despite its ruggedness, it cannot survive even a modest trample. Yet it plays an important role in the heathland ecosystem, stabilizing soils and minimizing erosion. Beach heather spreads cautiously; a colony can take the form of a series of graying clumps dotted across a bald landscape.

In June, something spectacular happens. The gray, patchy carpet changes hue completely as small, yellow flowers bloom at the tips of each scaly stalk. Catching it in bloom is wonderful, though this moment is ephemeral. 


Hudsonia tomentosa
Woolly Heather _ Cholakis.jpg

Woolly hudsonia, spotted within the backdunes near Amos Point at the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge in Chatham, Massachusetts in July 
(C) Kate Cholakis, 2012


Living with Woolly Hudsonia

Threatened in Connecticut and New Hampshire and endangered in Vermont and other states, our woolly groundcover is not exactly a garden plant. But if it arrives in your sandy garden, give it space and let it be. Its more attractive cousin, Hudsonia ericoides ("golden heather") combines the yellow flowers with bright green stalks, but is far less common than H. tomentosa

This plant will form patchy groundcover in:

  • Sandy, acidic, well-drained soils
  • Full sun

 


 

Kate Cholakis

Written by Kate Cholakis