Silvery nailwort

Description

Paronychia argyrocoma, the silvery nailwort, is a plant species native to the eastern United States. It has a disjunct distribution, found in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts) and the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeast (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland) but not from New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania in between. The species grows on rocky sites at elevations of 200–1800 m. Paronychia argyrocoma is a perennial herb with a woody caudex, forming mats covering significant areas of ground. Stems are prostrate to ascending, highly branched, up to 60 cm long. Leaves are leathery, lanceolate, up to 3 cm long. Flowers are borne in glomerules (clumps) of up to 25 flowers, each greenish-brown and covered with long silky hairs and spines on the calyx lobes. Paronychia is a genus of plants in the family Caryophyllaceae with over 110 species worldwide, mostly from warm-temperate North America, Eurasia, South America and Africa. They are herbs that are annual or biennial or perennial in life span. Some species have a woody base. For the most part they have small, white to yellow-white colored flowers that are often hidden within the paired bracts. The genus Siphonychia has been incorporated into Paronychia by botanists. The common names for some of the species include chickweed, nailwort, and Whitlow-wort. The genus gets its name from the disease of the fingernails which it was once thought to cure. Traditional healers in modern-day use species of this genus to treat kidney stones.