Lithospermum caroliniense

Lithospermum caroliniense
Photo taken by Gil Nelson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Lamiales
Family:	Boraginaceae
Genus:	Lithospermum
Species:	L. caroliniense
Binomial name
Lithospermum caroliniense Lam.
Natural range of Lithospermum caroliniense from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Carolina puccoon

Taxonomic notes

Synonyms: Lithospermum caroliniense var. caroliniense; Batschia caroliniensis Walter ex J.F. Gmelin; L. carolinense ssp. carolinense

Description

"Annual or perennial, pubescent or hispid herbs. Leaves usually alternate. Cymes leafy-bracteate, some flowers heterostylic; fruiting pedicels mostly erect or ascending. Calyx cleft into narrow lobes; corolla yellow, yellow-orange, or white (to blue), tubular to funnelform or salverform, throat pubescent, crested or open, lobes spreading and imbricate; anthers included; gynobase flat or depressed. Mericaps 4 or fewer, smooth or wrinkled, with a broad basal attachment scar, the scar often surrounded by a sharp rim." - Radford et al 1964

"Plant 3-10 dm tall, arising from a strong-staining taproot; stems simple or branched, very leafy, hirsute. Cymes dense, leafy-bracteate, elongate at maturity and loosely flowered; flowers heterostylic, all subtended by a bract. Calyx 6-8 mm long at anthesis, 8-10 mm long at maturity; corolla orange-yellow, funnelform, 13-25 mm long; anthers in short-styled flowers at the top of corolla tube and just below the appendages at the throat, style extending only to the middle of tube; anther in long-styled flowers near the middle of the corolla tube, the long style reaching to and beyond the top of the tube, the appendages weakly developed at the throat; corolla nectary 1-0lobed, villous at the base of tube; stigma terminal , minutely villosulous, bilobed. Mericaps white, smooth, often pitted, 3-3.5 mm long." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

Habitat

In the Coastal Plain in Florida and Georgia, L. caroliniense has been found in pinewoods and sand dunes. In human disturbed areas it has occurred in cut over secondary sandhill forest and along highways (FSU Herbarium). Associated species include Berlandiera pumila, Chrysopsis, Licania michauxii, Cnidoscolus stimulosus, Phlox pilosa, Rubus cuneifolius, and Solidago odora (FSU Herbarium). Soils include sand and loamy sand (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

Flowers have been observed in March and April (FSU Herbarium).

Seed dispersal

According to Kay Kirkman, a plant ecologist, this species disperses by gravity.

References and notes

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: October 2015. Collectors: Bill Anderson, Loran C. Anderson, Pam Anderson, R. Komarek, T. MacClendon, K. MacClendon, Sidney McDaniel, R. A. Norris. States and Counties: Florida: Bay, Calhoun, Jackson, Liberty Georgia: Decatur, Dougherty. 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. 882. Print.