Common name: Lizard's tail
Botanical name:Saururus cerruus
Virtues: Likes wet places and survives sustained flooding, making it useful in rain gardens, water or bog gardens and aquatic containers. Attractive foliage and interesting, long-standing flowers.
Foliage: Large and triangular. Bright green. Nicely fragrant when crushed.
Flowers: Citrus-scented stalks of white flowers stand upright but with a curved, drooping tip. Their shape inspires the common name of lizard's tail. Bloom begins in spring and continues through the summer.
Habit: An upright perennial reaching 1 to 3 feet tall and as wide. Spreads by underground roots and can form large colonies.
Season: Spring and summer.
Origin: Still water and wet areas from southern New England west to Michigan and Illinois and through the South.
Cultivation: Grow in full to part shade in moist to wet soil. Will not tolerate dryness. Can be submerged to 6 inches deep in water gardens. If you don't want it to spread, plant it first in containers and then set the containers into the soil or under the water. USDA Zones 3–9.
Image courtesy of Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder
