Bacopa monnieri

Bacopa monnieri
Photo by Wayne Matchett, SpaceCoastWildflowers.com
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Order:	Scrophulariales
Family:	Scrophulariaceae
Genus:	Bacopa
Species:	B. monnieri
Binomial name
Bacopa monnieri (L.) Pennell
Natural range of Bacopa monnieri from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Herb of grace

Taxonomic notes

Synonym: Bramia monnieri (Linnaeus) Drake

Description

Baccharis genus are dioecious, glabrous shrubs. They are rarely small trees. The leaves are alternate, fleshy, toothed or entire. The heads pedunculated or sessile, most of the time in 3-5 glomerules. The involucres are cylindric, 4-5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm broad. The bracts are imbricate, sometimes purplish in color, and obtuse. The flowers are discoid and yellowish in color. The nutlets are tan in color, lustrous, cylindric, 10-ribbed, glabrous, and 1.2-1.5 mm long. The pappus bristles are white to tan in color. The capillary is 7-10 mm long. (Radford 1964).

Specifically for B. monnieri, the plant has no smell. The erect portion of the stem is 1-3 dm tall and is glabrous. The leaves are obovate in shape, 6-17 mm long, 3-8 mm wide, and only having a single vein. It is rare to see 2-3 veins. The internodes are longer than the leaves. The pedicel is longer than the subtending leaf. The bractlets are present. The largest sepals grow up to 5-7 mm long, and 3-4 mm wide. The corolla is white in color and sometimes tinged with blue. The corolla is rotate to regular, growing up to 8-10 mm long. The lobes grow to the same size as the tube. There are 4 stamens which are subequal. Flowers from April to frost (Radford 1964).

Ecology

Habitat

In the Coastal Plain in Florida, B. monnieri has been found in shallow water of a shaded ditch; with Eleocharis flavescens in muck of small floating island in a ditch; sand fill near a salt marsh; and shallow brackish water (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

It has been observed to flower and fruit in June (FSU Herbarium).

Pollination

The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Bacopa monnieri at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015): Halictidae: Lasioglossum pectoralis, L. puteulanum

Megachilidae: Megachile brevis pseudobrevis, M. georgica

References and notes

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

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: July 2015. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, Karen MacClendon, Travis MacClendon, R.A. Norris, P.L. Redfearn Jr., Nia Wellendorf. States and Counties: Florida: Calhoun, Jefferson, Taylor, Wakulla. Compiled by Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

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. 938. Print.