Pediomelum canescens

Pediomelum canescens
Photo by Sara Eoff, Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae ⁄ Leguminosae
Genus:	Pediomelum
Species:	P. canescens
Binomial name
Pediomelum canescens (Michx.) Rydb.
Natural range of Pediomelum canescens from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: buckroot

Synonym: Psoralea canescens Michx.

Description

Pediomelum canescens is a perennial herbaceous species with a bushy growth habit (FSU Herbarium) it grows 1 to 3 feet tall with loose spike of dark-blue flowers and 1 to 3 foliolate leaves (Graham 1941).

"Perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs, more or less postulate-glandular. Leaves odd-pinnate or palmate, (1) 3-5 (7) foliolate, stipules usually persistent. Racemes or spikes pedunculate, axillary and sometimes also terminal; flowers papilionaceous. Calyx persistent, the lowermost lobe the longest or rarely all nearly equal; petals 5, blue-purple or rarely white; stamens 10, rarely 9, diadelphous or weakly monadelphous; ovary sessile or stipitate, usually 1-ovuled. Legume usually not much longer than the calyx, often conspicuously wrinkled, indehiscent or irregularly dehiscent, 1-seeded." - Radford et al 1964

"Coarsely canescent, perennial herb, 3-10 dm tall, from a subglobose or fusiform root 2.-4 cm thick. Leaves palmately 3-foliolate or the uppermost sometimes 1-foliolate; leaflets elliptic to obovate, mostly 1.5-6 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, eglandular to abundantly but inconspicuously glandular-punctate on both surfaces. Racemes loosely few-flowered, 2-6 cm long; peduncles 2-7 cm long, pedicels 3-6 mm long, each subtended by an ovate bract 4-6 mm long. Calyx appressed to spreading villous; petals blue or violet, 8-15 mm long. Legume ovoid, ca. 1 cm long, dehiscent." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

Habitat

P. canescens occurs in sandy areas of the Coastal Plain (Graham 1941) such as longleaf pine-turkey oak sand ridge, secondary longleaf pine-turkey oak sand-hill ridge, longleaf pine-wiregrass sandridge, pine flatwoods, and open sandridges (FSU Herbarium). Has been observed growing on drying sand besides roads in open pine-oak woodlands and dry sandy fields (FSU Herbarium). Associated species include Serenoa repens, Quercus incana, Quercus chapmanii, Quercus laevis, Aristida, Andropogon, Onosmodium, bahia grass, and Diospyros (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

Observed blooming May through October (FSU Herbarium).

Use by animals

Seeds have been found in bobwhite stomachs (Graham 1941).

References and notes

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: Robert Kral, Mabel Kral, O. Lakela, R.K. Godfrey, H. R. Reed, Loran C. Anderson, T. MacClendon, K. MacClendon, Cecil Slaughter, Travis Richardson, Steve L. Orzell, E. L. Bridges, A. F. Clewell, Sidney McDaniel, Raymond Athey, Richard D. Houk, Raymond Athey, R. A. Norris, R. Komarek, H. E. Ahles, J. Haesloop, J. R. Burkhalter, LK Kirkman, A. Gholson, D. Wolfe, Annie Schmidt, A. Johnson, and M. Jenkins. States and Counties: Florida: Bay, Calhoun, Citrus, Clay, Dixie, Duval, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Hamilton, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Jackson, Leon, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Suwannee, Taylor, Wakulla, Walton, and Washington. Georgia: Baker, Lowndes, and Thomas. North Carolina: Hoke. Alabama: Baldwin, Geneva, and Henry.

Graham, E. H. (1941). Legumes for erosion control and wildlife. Washington, USDA

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. 599-601. Print.