Fairy footprints?

Donna Winter (Class of 2016) shared this photo of innocence (Houstonia procumbent) that she took at the south Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area on walk that she led on 1/4/2020 along with Gayle Lafferty (Class of 2012), Terry Greene (Class of 2019), and Janice Broda for the Eugenia Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.  Also known as roundleaf bluet and fairy footprints, this delightful snow white-flowered plant is found growing in moderately moist open sandy soils from South Carolina to Florida to Louisiana.

You will not find this plant growing in turf grass.  Do not confuse this sweet native plant with the exotic large flowered Mexican clover (Richardia grandiflora) that spreads ferociously in grass yards and along roadsides.  Also known as Florida snow and fairy bells, this plant is an invasive exotic pest plant and is never snow-white like innocence.

Sometimes the ovate (roundish), opposite leaves are not evident, as you can see in this photo taken in white sand scrub in Sebastian by Jane Schnee (Class of 2010) …

Under these conditions, its leaves are minute …

Innocence can look very different in shady pinelands as this photo taken in 2009 at south ORCA shows …

Innocence always is prostrate, which gives rise its species name, procumbent.  Its genus name, Houstonia, honors Dr. William Houston, an 18th century surgeon and botanist who collected plants in central America and the West Indies.

Look very closely at its 4-lobed flower, and you may be able to see that some similarities to the flowers of wild coffee (Psychotria sp.).  Innocence also is a member of the madder family, Rubiaceae.