In my Coastal Plant Ecology course in college this was one of my first plants to learn, Sesuvium portulacastrum. This is a dune and edge of marsh type of plant but it is one of my favorites for its small pink flower and the ability to spread itself across the ground. A succulent, it is an excellent stabilizer of dirt, hence its being found on dunes. It seems to have a worldwide distribution, not limited to the United States, particularly in tropical climes. Native plant nurseries might have the plant for use in the garden, particularly those along coastal regions. Gardeners would find the succulents in the Portulaca genus to…

I feel fairly certain that this is Vicia villosa, though I am up for someone informing me otherwise. It was growing with the pinkroot and clematis near the Big Thicket. While there are native vetches, this one is a non-native introduced from Europe and has now naturalized across a lot of the U.S. One website states it was introduced as a forage crop for livestock while another states that the seedpods are poisonous to cattle, so your guess is as good as mine! A few butterflies enjoy using vetch (this one and others) as a host plant such as the silvery blue and the orange sulphur. If you are interested…