Agalinis fasciculata

Agalinis fasciculata
Photo was taken by Gil Nelson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Orobancheaceae
Genus:	Agalinis
Species:	A. fasciculata
Binomial name
Agalinis fasciculata (Elliott) Raf.
Natural range of Agalinis fasciculata from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common names: Beach False Foxglove; Cluster-leaf Gerardia

Synonym names: A. fasciculata var. peninsularis Pennell; Gerardia fasciculata Elliott; Gerardia fasciculata subsp. peninsularis (Pennell) Pennell

Description

It is an annual plant and it produces large, pink flowers in late summer (Musselman et al 1979). Numerous small capsules each carrying hundreds of brown honeycombed seeds mature in late autumn (Musselman et a 1979). Agalinis fasciculata is a root hemiparasite. A great variety of herbaceous and woody plants make up its host range. (Musselman et al 1979). Is an annual (Radford 1964). It flowers summer to fall and also all year in the southern peninsula (Wunderlin and Hansen 2003).

Distribution

It is common in all of Florida. Found from: west to Texas, north to North Carolina (Hall 1993).

Ecology

Habitat

It can be found in frequently burned pine sandhills (Entisols), flatwoods (Spodosols), upland pine communities and shortleaf pine-oak-hickory woodlands (Ultisols), as well as calcareous glades, and margins of ponds, lakes, depressions, marshes, and wet meadows, and on the borders of dunes (Musselman et al 1979; FSU Herbarium). It occurs on a wide range of soil types from deep sands to loamy clay (FSU Herbarium). It requires high light provided by frequently burned areas (Musselman et al. 1979; FSU Herbarium). It can occur on very disturbed soils, such those in railroad and power line rights-of-way, clear-cut areas, disturbed roadsides, dredged up sand, and site-prepped pine forests (Musselman et al 1979; FSU Herbarium). It appears to be somewhat salt tolerant given its proximity to salt marshes (Musselman et al. 1979) and co-existence with Spartina bakari and other brackish and salt water plants (FSU Herbarium). Fond in sandhills, coastal scrub, tidal wetland margins, and flatwoods (Wunderlin and Hansen 2003). Found in sandhills, savannahs, and roadsides (Radford 1964).

Pollination

The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Agalinis fasciculata at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):

Colletidae: Hylaeus confluens

Halictidae: Augochlorella gratiosa

Megachilidae: Megachile albitarsis

References and notes

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu/

Deyrup, M.A. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowering plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.

Hall, David W. Illustrated Plants of Florida and the Coastal Plain: based on the collections of Leland and Lucy Baltzell. 1993. A Maupin House Book. Gainesville. 341. Print.

Musselman, L. J. and W. F. Mann, Jr (1979). "Agalinis fasciculata (Scrophulariaceae), a native parasitic weed on commercial tree species in the southeastern United States." American Midland Naturalist 101: 459-464.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 960. Print.

Wunderlin, Richard P. and Bruce F. Hansen. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida. Second edition. 2003. University Press of Florida: Gainesville/Tallahassee/Tampa/Boca Raton/Pensacola/Orlando/Miami/Jacksonville/Ft. Myers. 546. Print.