Creeping Monkey Grass Gardens in Chinese Monkey Year Theme Gardening

Summary: Monkey flowers and trees get creeping monkey grass gardens for edging, groundcover, ornamental and understory help in Chinese monkey year theme gardening.

Southern Living shares that Liriope is the South's favorite ground cover and that Liriope spicata is a perfect cover for large beds and slopes; creeping monkey grass (Liriope spicata) in Kihei, southwestern Maui; Jan. 23, 2007: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Americanized creeping monkey grass gardens accompany candelabra and monkey puzzle trees, clumping monkey grass and sharpwing and square-stemmed monkey flowers into Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening, Jan. 27, 2016-Feb. 8, 2017.

The evergreen perennial bears the common names creeping lilyturf and creeping monkey grass to bring up its clumping monkey grass relative, lily-like looks and turf-like functions. It carries the scientific name Liriope spicata for the naiad guardian of springs and the nymph mother of Narcissus and for its clustered flowers' spiky shapes. The asparagus relative in the Asparagaceae family demands temperatures above minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 34.4 degrees Celsius) inside and outside its native China and Vietnam.

The humidity-, light-, moisture-, soil-, temperature- and weather-tolerant non-native expects moist, organic matter-rich, semi-shaded, well-drained soils in United States Department of Agriculture zones 4 to 10.

The grasslike flowering plant flourishes natively as East Asian understory vegetation in forests and on grassy slopes up to 5,900 feet (1,798.32 meters) above sea level. It grows as edging along borders and walkways, as groundcover along water bodies and on slopes and as ornamentals in gardens in the southeastern United States. It has a mature growth habit of 0.75 to 1.5 feet (22.86 to 45.72 centimeters) long by 1 to 2 feet (30.48 to 60.96 centimeters) wide. Its arching, clustered, grasslike, narrow foliage is brown in winter, dark glossy green spring through fall, mowable at high settings and one-quarter inch (0.64 centimeter) wide.

Lavender to white flowers join evergreen foliage during August to September bloom times in creeping monkey grass gardens for Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening plans.

The deer- and rabbit-resistant, pollution-tolerant relative of Chinese, Japanese and Korean clumping monkey grass keeps its delicate, tiny flowers inconspicuously within, not above, late summer foliage.

Summer bloom times lead into fall and winter fruiting and seeding times and into next year's early spring sowing times for each blackish berry's single seed. Human-managed division of root masses with frequent tubers and natural rooting of horizontal, prominent, underground stems called rhizomes make up creeping monkey grass's main reproduction means. The spring and the summer months nurture the adventitious rooting of baby creeping monkey grass plants from the parent rhizome's nodes whereas division needs winter dormancy.

Creeping monkey grass, described by João de Loureiro (Sept. 8, 1717-Oct. 18, 1791), offers Americanized Chinese monkey year theme gardening sustainable populations because of opportunistic rhizomes.

Americanized creeping monkey grass gardens prove problematic when their rhizomes perform aggressively, such as by poking adventitiously rooted shoots through cracks in concrete blocks and pavement. They qualify as unproblematic when creeping monkey grass, described by Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg (Nov. 11, 1743-Aug. 8, 1828), quickens naturally phytoremediating air purification processes. Creeping monkey grass reveals phytoremediating properties, as a plant for restoring ecosystem balance, by removing ammonia, formaldehyde, toluene and xylene from contaminated atmospheres and polluted environments. The anthracnose fungus that streaks clumping monkey grass red and the scale insect that spots it red typically stay well away from survivalist creeping monkey grass.

Creeping monkey grass gardens transform intolerable sites into tolerable homelands for monkey year theme gardening with American monkey flowers and Americanized monkey grasses and monkey trees.

creeping monkey grass (Liriope spicata) in Calgary Zoo's ENMAX Conservatory; Calgary, southwestern Albert, western Canada; Sept. 12, 2012: Wendy Cutler, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Southern Living shares that Liriope is the South's favorite ground cover and that Liriope spicata is a perfect cover for large beds and slopes; creeping monkey grass (Liriope spicata) in Kihei, southwestern Maui; Jan. 23, 2007: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/starr-environmental/24584688610/

creeping monkey grass (Liriope spicata) in Calgary Zoo's ENMAX Conservatory; Calgary, southwestern Albert, western Canada; Sept. 12, 2012: Wendy Cutler, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/wlcutler/8008434844/

For further information:

Gilman, Edward F. October 1999. Reviewed February 2014. "Liriope spicata Creeping Lilyturf." University of Florida > Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences > Electronic Data Information Source > FPS Publication 350.
Available @ http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fp350

"Liriope spicata." Missouri Botanical Garden > Gardens & Gardening > Your Garden > Plant Finder.
Available @ http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a620

"Liriope spicata (Thunb.) Lour. Creeping Liriope." United States Department of Agriculture > Natural Resources Conservation Service > Plant Profile.
Available @ https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=LISP10

Loureiro, João de. 1790. "Liriope spicata." Flora Cochinchinensis, Tomus 1: 201.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/653400

Lynn, Audrey. "What Is the Difference between Liriope muscari and Liriope spicata?" SFGate > Home Guides > Garden > Gardening > Garden Ideas.
Available @ http://homeguides.sfgate.com/difference-between-liriope-muscari-liriope-spicata-42534.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2016/01/clumping-monkey-grass-gardens-in.html

Owings, Allen. January 2012. "Getting the Most From Your Liriope Ground Cover." State-by-State Gardening > Midwest Edition > Newsletter Stories.
Available @ http://statebystategardening.com/state.php/il/newsletter-stories/getting_the_most_from_your_liriope_ground_cover/

Reed, Rebecca Bull. March 2006. "Smart Choices With Monkey Grass." Southern Living > Home - Garden > Gardens.
Available @ http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/smart-choices-monkey-grass

Russ, Karen; and Russ Polomski. Revised by Joey Williamson. "Liriope." Clemson University > Cooperative Extension > Home and Garden Information Center > Landscape, Garden & Indoor Plants > Landscape Plants & Lawns > Groundcovers & Vines > HGIC 1108.
Available @ http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/groundcovers/hgic1108.html