Xyris caroliniana
Xyris caroliniana | |
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Xyris caroliniana, the Peninsular Florida white-flowered form | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Division: | Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants |
Class: | Liliopsida – Monocotyledons |
Order: | Commelinales |
Family: | Xyridaceae |
Genus: | Xyris |
Species: | X. caroliniana |
Binomial name | |
Xyris caroliniana Walter | |
Natural range of Xyris caroliniana from USDA NRCS Plants Database. |
Contents
Description
Solitary or in small tufts, the bases deeply set in the substrate, perennating by means of pale, elongated, fleshy lateral buds. Outer leaves scaly, castaneous; longer leaves linear, 2-5 (-7) dm long, 2-5 mm broad, twisted and flexuous, mostly smooth, minutely tuberculate along the margins, base abruptly dilated, dark brown, shiny, long-persistent as scales. Sheath of the scape shorter than the leaves, tight below, loose toward the oblique orifice which is tipped by a very short blade. Scapes linear, 5-10 dm long, twisted, flexuous, smooth, terete and minutely ridged below, the ridges minutely tuberculate, becoming oval in cross-section and smooth to 1-ridged above. Spikes 1-3 cm long, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate in outline, blunt to acute, of few to many closely imbricate bracts. Fertile bracts 0.5-1.3 cm long, oblong to obovate, entire or emarginate, becoming erose, the center ovate area gray-green, the wide margin light tan or brown. Lateral sepals linear, slightly to conspicuously exserted, tan to reddish brown with a broad keel which is entire below but fimbriate at its exserted apex. Petal blades obovate, 8-9 mm long, yellow in n. Fla., becoming more typically white in peninsular Fla., in most populations opening in the afternoon. Seeds fusiform, narrow, 0.8-1 mm long, translucent, with about 20 pale, stripelike longitudinal lines, the vertical lines apparent.
Distribution
Moist sands of pine flatwoods or savannas, well-drained sands or moist depressions of mesic to scrubby flatwoods, sandhills, and scrub. Summer-Fall. Common throughout Florida. Coastal Plain. New Jersey; southeast Virginia, south to Florida, west to southeast Texas.
Ecology
Habitat
Atlantic Longleaef Flatwoods with inclusions of Atlantic Mesic Longleaf Woodland, savanna, and seepage bog (Glitzenstein et al 2003). Southern Longleaf Flatwood according to Peet and Allard 1993 (Glitzenstein et al 2003). Osceola study plots soils are spodosols (Glitzenstein et al 2003).
Phenology
Seed dispersal
Seed bank and germination
Fire ecology
Pollination
Use by animals
Diseases and parasites
Conservation and Management
Cultivation and restoration
Photo Gallery
References and notes
Glitzenstein, J. S., D. R. Streng, et al. (2003). "Fire frequency effects on longleaf pine (Pinus palustris, P.Miller) vegetation in South Carolina and northeast Florida, USA." Natural Areas Journal 23: 22-37.