Black Mondo Grass ???

When I dug up my grass to divide it, there are little white egg looking things growing on the roots. Looks like pods of some sort and they are white/clear. They were there when I bought the plant several years ago, too. What are those things and can I use them to propogate the grass?

Michelle

Could be eggs, could also be nitrogen nodules (fixes nitrogen in soil...like most beans and clovers)
Got a picture of them?
Does it look something like this?

I don't have a camera...they don't look like that. They are attached to the plant, they appear to be part of the plant. But I could be wrong. They look eerie...like small egg-shaped clear jelly beans.

Michelle

Sounds more like eggs than. Some crawly critter I would think :-)

Hmmm... I wonder... now my curiosity is gonna make me keep digging it up.

Michelle

In reseraching this some I see that many types of Beetles lay eggs in and around root systems of host plants. Could be what you've got............

ahh...thank you! That's probably what it is. And me, like a fool, wanted to go dig some out and try to grow them in my house!
Michelle

:-) No worse than me babing a treasured plant only to find it to be a weed. LOL

hahah! that's hilarious, I would totally do that!

but when I baby a plant it dies, if I treat it like a weed, it thrives!

Michelle

I just remembered an incident... I found these BEAUTIFUL white flowers growing on the side of my house, where I never go. I VERY CAREFULLY dug some up and moved into my backyard and watered them and cared for them. Then came the seeds...it was easy to ID them at that point and they were BEGGAR'S TICKS! Arrggghhh! Now I have them all over my backyard 3 years later and can't get rid of them. Oh, the shame!

Michelle

LOL That's how I got canadian thistle in one of my perennial beds..

I've got thistle, too, thought it was soooo pretty when I first moved here so I let it go to seed.... stupid me.

Michelle

I have some Black Mondo grass in my back yard right now. Last Fall most of them produced little white flowers. I was looking at them today and one of them has little pea sized black balls on it. I'm wondering what that is.

Isn't that what the seedpods look like? Not that I would know, mine haven't flowered yet.

Michelle

I'm assuming that the little black balls are seed pods, but the timing is throwing me off. I thought seeds came after flowers and the flowes were on the other Mondo grass last fall. Doesn't it seem early for seeds already? I hope it is thought because I'd like to spread it around the base of a pyramid trellis I have. As you can tell i'm new to gaardening; second year.
Chad

Could they have been growing there for awhile and you didn't notice? They should come right after flowering.

Possibly, but it's hard to believe they would look so shiny and bright if they had been there all winter. You know when I bought that clump it had some very green grass in with it, which i assumed was early stage mondo. The sales person at the nursery didn't mention it so I thought it must be Mondo. Once Fall hit I neglected my garden, but when I went out a couple weeks ago I noticed the green grass had totally engulfed this clump of Mondo and it had a lot of seeds. Like an idiot I still thought it must be Mondo so I helped spread the seeds. I found out a day later it was a parasite grass. When I pulled it all out from around the Mondo I noticed the little black peas so maybe they were there over the winter. I'll go out tomorrow and pinch a round on them. that would be great if they were seeds becasue there a lot of them.

ohh.
today I dug up a green mini mondo and it had the same things on the roots. and you know what? I planted some dahlia clumps and those brown things hanging look just like the things on the mondo grass, only bigger and not the same color.
???

If they are clear little round things like beads, the could be slug or snail eggs.

The black round bead thingees are seeds, from last fall still around. Plant them and see if the sprout.

Judy

ohhh noooo!!!
we have snails and slugs. usta have only snails. like i said, when i bought the mondo grass it had them. so maybe the mondo grass brought the slugs with it???
Michelle

Sorry, Michelle to ride in on your question but I just bought this grass.

I am getting mixed instructions on where to plant it. The tag says sun to part shade DG says part shade/shade. Where do you have this planted?

Linda

I strongly recommend part shade/shade. I planted one in full sun once, under a tree, thinking that would be enough protection, it got crispy in no time. this plant has got be in the top ten of SLOWEST to grow! beautiful but boy is it slow!

I planted mine part shade, doing great.

Any possibility they are root knot nematodes? We have a nematode in this area (North Florida) that forms a gall-like structure around its home within a root. The knots crush easily. I have seen similar structures on green mondo grass here.