Paronychia americana

From Coastal Plain Plants Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Paronychia americana
Paro amer.jpg
Photo by Patricia Howell, Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Caryophyllaceae
Genus: Paronychia
Species: P. americana
Binomial name
Paronychia americana
(Nutt.) Fenzl ex Walp.
Paro amer dist.jpg
Natural range of Paronychia americana from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common names: American nailwort; American whitlow-wort

Taxonomic notes

Synonyms: Siphonychia americana (Nuttall) Torrey & Gray; Siphonychia pauciflora Small.[1]

Varieties: none.[1]

Description

A description of Paronychia americana is provided in The Flora of North America.

P. americana is a sprawling, ascending, or erect annual. Leaves are elliptic or spatulate, 4-18 mm long, and 1-2.5 mm wide, with usually conspicuous stipules. The calyx is purple with a pubescent and globose tube. The tube is 0.5 mm long with 0.5 mm long calyx lobes. The sepals are white-scarious-margined, broadly rounded, and hooded. There is a densely pubescent on the basal portion of the sepals and this portion is nearly ½ its length. The stem is glabrous or has one side with curly hairs.[1][2]


Distribution

Paronychia americana is endemic to an area from southern South Carolina to peninsular Florida, but the majority is found in Florida.[3]

Ecology

Habitat

Paronychia americana can occur in sandhills, sand pine scrubs, turkey oak woods, wiregrass savannas, and grassy recreation fields. [4] Associated species include sand pine, live oak, turkey oak, bluejack oak, and wiregrass. [4]

Phenology

This species flowers from June through September.[1]

Pollination

Paronychia americana has been observed at the Archbold Biological Station to host sweat bees from the Halictidae family such as Lasioglossum nymphalis and L. placidensis and wasps from the Vespidae family such as Leptochilus krombeini.[5]

Conservation, cultivation, and restoration

Cultural use

Photo Gallery

References and notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Weakley, A.S. 2015. Flora of the southern and mid-atlantic states. Working Draft of 21 May 2015. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  2. Radford, A. E., Ahles, H. E., & Bell, C. R. (1968). Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
  3. Sorrie, B. A. and A. S. Weakley 2001. Coastal Plain valcular plant endemics: Phytogeographic patterns. Castanea 66: 50-82.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: October 2015. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, Michael B. Brooks, George R. Cooley, Bob Fewster, Robert K. Godfrey, Mike Jenkins, Walter Judd, R. Kral, Sidney McDaniel, Marc Minno, Joseph Monachino, Cecil R. Slaughter, Bian Tan, R.L. Wilbur. States and Counties: Alabama: Pike. Florida: Brevard, Collier, Columbia, Hernando, Flagler, Lake, Leon, Palm Beach. Georgia: Emanuel, Laurens, Telfair. Compiled by Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.
  5. Deyrup, M.A. and N.D. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowers of plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.