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It's just an ordinary looking weed--green all year long in rounded mounds that are 8 to 10 inches high. It blooms in the late spring with conical, lavender spikelets. It is in the mint family, but it sure doesn't smell like mint. With square stems like the other mints and stark white rhizomes able to withstand almost any drought, this is Florida betony, and it's here in Tyler-and probably here to stay.
The root system is not only extensive but is also full of white tubers (they look somewhat like white peanuts to me) that store the food energy needed for it to keep coming back after the plant and most roots are pulled up or poisoned with herbicide.
How do we rid our yards and gardens of it? Perhaps a broad-leaf herbicide will control it in our lawns. I have had good control in garden patches by removing all the roots, rhizomes, and tubers I can see when spading up the garden, then covering the garden with landscape fabric and several inches of mulch. For fence rows, I am applying glyphosate until it stops coming back or I go broke, whichever comes first.
Jim Showen, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas AgriLife Extension Service