Weldon, I have Frogfruit, for me it spread slowly, but has been great for keeping weeds out, etc.

A widely used native ground cover is horse herb. It grows wild around here. I don't cultivate it but it grows in the easement in back of my property. In years that it rains it grows very thickly. Drought years it doesn't. I have a photo somewhere. I'll look it up.

The photo is on this thread about horseherb.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another thread about horseherb,. Do a search and you'll find several threads.

Roselee beat me to it! Horseherb's the easiest I know of. Texas SmartScape (http://www.txsmartscape.com) also lists Pigeonberry, Snake Herb, Wood Violet, and White Avens along with the Frog Fruit.

Thanks you two. You always come up with some good info.

And you can get lots of horseherb from me, Weldon. I didn't plant it..............think it may be courtesy of a friendly bird. It does seem to like to be watered though.

I tear out horse herb every time I see it because it has no respect.. I like snake herb ( dychriste linearis

They will have it at lady Bird Johnstons plant sale this weekend. They use it as a ground cover there in their formal gardens. I like it a lot.

Plox pilosa will maje a good ground cover in shade and sun. pidgeonberry, SAlvia lyrata and salvia roemeriana will seed out and cover ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: Snake Herb

When I lived in AZ people paid big $$ for dichondra in place of grass.
I have it in a few beds, so I have just left it.

Silver pony;s foot or Dichondra argenta is hard to beat but it might get hit back by that really cold winter. Mine took a beating at 12 degreesand then that awful drought. It is starting to recover now. True I did not water it through the drought because I thought the cold had killed it. Tough year. It does like sun better than shade.

You might want to find some wild violets as they also do fine almost anywhere plus you will get a few blooms in the spring. They like to spread out also as they are usually found under trees anywhere. Once they get started they will spread on their own. They seem to not have a problem growing in my horse herbs. horse herb will stop growing outside of the shaded areas so you never have to worry about it going where you do not want it to grow, at least that is what happens in my backyard.

Wandering jew coupled with oxalis (wood sorrel) if you are not worried about the wood sorel spreading. IT does like to spread. I found this pairing because I was inundated with wood sorrel. It would grow most of the winter and early spring when the wandering jew was bit back by the cold . Spring time was lucious with wood sorrel. Just about the time the oxalis got rust and died back to the ground, the wandering jew would be popping up from the ground nice and thick. Their colors looked good together too..

Thanks everybody! Lots of great ideas. I have a place in the country that could use some of these plants....in fact,
there are probably some of them already there. I'm just not good at plant ID. I appreciate all the info.

Weldon, just be warned, the Wandering Jew WILL spread easily! It's best to keep it in a contained area...and I'm not sure that will work 100%. I do like it, it's working very well in the spot I put it in...BUT it's surrounded by hardscape: house, driveway, brick wall, brick walkway. It's covered the area and has been growing over the driveway all summer.

Not in Central texas. Wandering Jew stays put...I swear. I have the same plants in the same 2' cicle for 10 years. Maybe somewhere else. My bank of it in Austin was very well behaved . I had to purposely root it to make it expand.

tx_ag, I agree with wandering Jew's spreading. I prefer.tho. something that can be walked on more easily....don't like the squish of the jews underfoot.

Then you need to get my creeping Jenny or the wooly stemodia.............both can be walked on without a great deal of damage.

Mara, I think you got lucky! It spread easily at my parents' house in San Antonio as well as mine north of Dallas. But, I agree, it's NOT something you want to walk on! :)

tha non spreading might have something to do with me not watering it and the high alkalinity. This was true in the down town Austin house that was on the cut back to the Colorado river and on the limestone rubble 30 miles west of town. No , it is not a ground cover for walking purposes.

Weldon,
I have lots of horseherb as well if you'd like some. It's gone wild with the rain and cooler weather.

Pam