Carphephorus corymbosus
| Carphephorus corymbosus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae ⁄ Compositae |
| Genus: | Carphephorus |
| Species: | C. corymbosus |
| Binomial name | |
| Carphephorus corymbosus (Nutt.) Torr. & A. Gray | |
| |
| Natural range of Carphephorus corymbosus from USDA NRCS Plants Database. | |
Contents
Description
Common Name: coastal plain chaffhead
This species has been described as scattered from occasional to abundant in numbers (FSU Herbarium).
Distribution
It can be found in upland sandy habitats of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.[1]
Ecology
Habitat
This species can be found in upland sandhills, dry to relatively wet pinelands, flatwoods, pine-palmettos environments, prairies, and longleaf-scrub oak-wiregrass savannahs. [2] (FSU Herbarium, Kalmbacher et al 2005). It can also be found in human disturbed areas such as roadsides, clearings, around powerlines, bulldozed areas, and cut pine forests (FSU Herbarium). This species thrives in open light conditions in dry, loamy sand, drying sand, as well as moist sandy peat of pine-saw palmetto flats (FSU Herbarium).
Phenology
"Carphephorus corymbosus is a perennial herbaceous composite. Plants of this species consist of an acaulescent rosette of spatulate to oblanceolate leaves from thickened, fibrous roots, and a long green terete stem which branches into an inflorescence with purple to lavender flowers (Correa and Wilbur, 1969). Plants have alternatve leaves which become progressively smaller distally. C. corymbosus grows in open, sandy areas in sand pine scrub, sandhills, and open pinewood barrens from southeastern Georgia, throughout most of peninsular Florida (Correa and Wilbur 1969; Wunderlin, 1982). The species is an indicator species of sandhills. I examined 3848 basal rosettes at 12 sandhill communities in north and central Florida from 24 August to 8 November 1988 (Figure 1). C. corymbosus was absent from 2 of these study sites (Suwannee River State Park, Suwannee Co. and San Felasco Hammock Preserve, Alachua Co.). its density at the 10 remaining sites ranged from .004 basal rosettes per m2 at Wekiwa Springs State Park, Orange Co. to .470 at Spruce Creek Preserve, Volusia Co. (mean =.086 basal rosettes per m2 for the 10 study sites). Density was determined in late summer and early fall. “ “of the 3838 basal rosettes examined, 9.25% produced inflorescences. Terete stems first appear in late May and reach full length by early June. Around mid-June buds develop on the ends of the corymbs; flowers apper in mid-August. Leaf fall occurs in December and the stems and corymbs dry out but remain standing well into the next year, and often may be seen alongside new basal rosettes with stems. On several occasions, a root mass was dug up (rebuired after examination); it bore a new basal rosette with a stem and an old dried stem from the previous year.”[3] Bloom season: June to November[1]
Seed dispersal
Seed bank and germination
Fire ecology
It is fire-tolerant.[4] Heuberger observed that the duration of flowering for C. corymbosus was longer in burned patches.[5] Fires directly and indirectly effect insect abundance –grasshopper densities on the flowering plants(including Carphephrous corymbosus) were significantly affected by burn frequency with higher numbers in one, two and five year plots.[6]
Pollination
Mark Deyrup at Archbold Biological Station observed these Hymenoptera species on Carphephorus corymbosus
Halictidae: Halictus poeyi
Use by animals
Kerstyn found that grasshopper densities on Carphephorus corymbosus were highest on one year, two year, and five year plots. Densities were lowest on the control (unburned) plots and seven year plots. It is possible that burning, which serves to replenish nutrients, results in better plant quality, which would explain why grasshopper densities are greater on more frequently burned plots.[6] Bees, Halictus ligatus Say and Bumelia tenax L. were found on C. corymbosus.[7] “C. corymbosus attracts many species of butterflies when in flower. Green lynx spiders are pollinator predaotrs and are often found on the floer heads waiting for a hapless insect to visit.”[1]
Diseases and parasites
Conservation and Management
Cultivation and restoration
Photo Gallery
References and notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hammer, Roger L. Everglades Wildflowers: A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Historic Everglades: Including Big Cypress, Corkscrew and Fakahatchee Swamps. Guilford: Falcon, 2002. 17. Print.
- ↑ http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wetlands/delineation/featuredplants/carpheph.htm, more citations needed
- ↑ Comments on the Phenology of Carphephorus corymbosus (Compositae) by David T. Corey. Journal: Rhodora, Vol. 94, No 879, pp. 323-325, 1992.
- ↑ Kalmbacher, R., N. Cellinese, et al. (2005). "Seeds obtained by vacuuming the soil surface after fire compared with soil seedbank in a flatwoods plant community." Native Plants Journal 6: 233-241.
- ↑ Heuberger, K. A. and F. E. Putz (2003). "Fire in the suburbs: ecological impacts of prescribed fire in small remnants of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) sandhill." Restoration Ecology 11: 72-81.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kerstyn, A. and P. Stiling (1999). "The effects of burn frequency on the density of some grasshoppers and leaf miners in a Florida sandhill community." Florida Entomologist 82: 499-505.
- ↑ Deyrup, M. J. E., and Beth Norden (2002). "The diversity and floral hosts of bees at the Archbold Biological Station, Florida (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)." Insecta mundi 16(1-3).
