Stachys floridana

This species is a perennial herb producing a hairy, erect stem up to about half a meter in maximum height. It grows from a network of rhizomes with tubers. The distinctive pale-colored tuber is several centimeters long and about one centimeter wide, and is segmented in such a way that it resembles the rattle on the tail of a rattlesnake,[6] the inspiration for the common name "rattlesnake weed".[2] The tuber is also said to resemble "a fat grub".[7] The tuber can reportedly grow up to one meter long in sandy soils.[2] The oppositely arranged leaves have blades up to 5.5 centimeters long borne on petioles up to 3.5 centimeters long. Flowers grow in clusters of 3 to 6 from the upper leaf axils. The tubular, hairy calyx of sepals has pointed lobes. The two-lipped corolla is up to 1.3 centimeters long[6] and white to pink with purple spots[8] or darker lines.[3] The fruit is a schizocarp a few centimeters long that splits in half. The seeds are about a millimeter long.[6]

The plant is a prolific producer of seeds, but it often undergoes vegetative reproduction via its rhizome and tubers. Small segments of rhizome can sprout into new plants,[3] and the transport of the tuber to new areas may be the most common way the plant spreads.[6] The plant grows in disturbed habitat types, such as roadsides, often on wet soils. It grows in turf and in beds of ornamental plants.[6]

The plant was considered to be a Florida endemic until the 1940s and 1950s,[6] when it began to spread throughout the southeastern United States. Its rhizome system extends easily into the loose soils of cultivated ground, and it became a weed of residential and commercial land.[5] It can be found in lawns and other turfgrass, especially centipedegrass and St. Augustine grass.[7] It is a weed of ornamentals, where it can be harder to control than in lawns, because fewer herbicides are approved for use on ornamental herbs and shrubs than on turfgrasses.[2] It is one of the worst weeds of the cultivated ornamental leatherleaf fern (Rumohra adiantiformis).[9] Weed control in ornamentals may require hand-pulling, with careful removal of all the tubers.[2]

Tuber

Much like its relative, the Chinese artichoke, the "crisp, succulent" tuber is edible,[2] and has "a pleasingly crunchy texture and a bland, slightly sweet taste".[3]