Agalinis fasciculata
Agalinis fasciculata | |
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Photo was taken by Gil Nelson | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Division: | Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
Class: | Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons |
Order: | Lamiales |
Family: | Orobancheaceae |
Genus: | Agalinis |
Species: | A. fasciculata |
Binomial name | |
Agalinis fasciculata (Elliott) Raf. | |
Natural range of Agalinis fasciculata from USDA NRCS Plants Database. |
Common names: Beach False Foxglove; Cluster-leaf Gerardia
Synonym names: A. fasciculata var. peninsularis Pennell; Gerardia fasciculata Elliott; Gerardia fasciculata subsp. peninsularis (Pennell) Pennell
Contents
Taxonomic notes
Description
Annual. Parasitic to the roots of grasses and other herbs. Leaves are opposite, linear to filiform, and sometimes will have tufts on the shoots. Flowers are showy, in terminal racemes; the calyx is 5-parted, the lobes are shorter than the tube; the corolla is 5-parted. The flowers are rose-lavender in color and are rarely white. There are usually 2 yellow lines and numerous purple spots in the throat on the tube. The tube is broad, campanulate, and the lobes are shorter than the tube. The throat is usually lanose at the base of the 2 upper corolla lobes. There are 4 stamens, didynamous, that include filaments and anthers that are also lanose. The stigmas are elongated. The capsules are globose or subglobose, loculicidal. (Radford 1964).
The stems are similar to Agalinis purpurea, but instead are scabrous to scaberulous (not puberulent). Flowers August to October. (Radford 1964).
It is an annual plant and it produces large, pink flowers in late summer (Musselman et al 1979). Numerous small capsules each carrying hundreds of brown honeycombed seeds mature in late autumn (Musselman et a 1979). Agalinis fasciculata is a root hemiparasite. A great variety of herbaceous and woody plants make up its host range. (Musselman et al 1979). It is an annual (Radford 1964). It flowers summer to fall and also all year in the southern peninsula (Wunderlin and Hansen 2003).
Distribution
It is common in all of Florida. Found from: west to Texas, north to North Carolina (Hall 1993).
Ecology
Habitat
It can be found in frequently burned pine sandhills (Entisols), flatwoods (Spodosols), upland pine communities and shortleaf pine-oak-hickory woodlands (Ultisols), as well as calcareous glades, and margins of ponds, lakes, depressions, marshes, and wet meadows, and on the borders of dunes (Musselman et al 1979; FSU Herbarium). It occurs on a wide range of soil types from deep sands to loamy clay (FSU Herbarium). It requires high light provided by frequently burned areas (Musselman et al. 1979; FSU Herbarium). It can occur on very disturbed soils, such those in railroad and power line rights-of-way, clear-cut areas, disturbed roadsides, dredged up sand, and site-prepped pine forests (Musselman et al 1979; FSU Herbarium). It appears to be somewhat salt tolerant given its proximity to salt marshes (Musselman et al. 1979) and co-existence with Spartina bakari and other brackish-salt water plants (FSU Herbarium). Fond in sandhills, coastal scrub, tidal wetland margins, and flatwoods (Wunderlin and Hansen 2003). Found in sandhills, savannahs, and roadsides (Radford 1964).
Associated species includes Bidens, Chrysopsis, Eupatorium, Schoenus nigricans, A. longespica, Houstonia nigricans, Rynchospora divergens, Scleria verticillata, Juniperus, Haplopappus, Rubus, Gnaphaluim, Eupatorium compositifolium, Baccharis, Andropogon, Xyris, Polygala, Solidago, Trichostema, Spartina bakeri, Myrica cerifera, Euthamia minor, Baccharis angustfolia, Hyptis, Lycopus, Drosera, Pinus palustris and others (FSU Herbarium).
Phenology
Fall flowering (Flowering Specimens of Species at FSU's Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium, Thumbnails of all Specimens of Species at Valdosta State University Herbarium).
Michelle Smith observed Agalinis fasciculata flowering along Piney Z Lake in Tallahasee, Florida in September 2015 & flowering at Pebble Hill Plantation in Grady County, GA in October 2015.
Seed dispersal
Seed bank and germination
Fire ecology
Pollination
The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Agalinis fasciculata at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):
Colletidae: Hylaeus confluens
Halictidae: Augochlorella gratiosa
Megachilidae: Megachile albitarsis
Use by animals
Diseases and parasites
Conservation and Management
Cultivation and restoration
Photo Gallery
References and notes
Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu/
Deyrup, M.A. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowering plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.
Hall, David W. Illustrated Plants of Florida and the Coastal Plain: based on the collections of Leland and Lucy Baltzell. 1993. A Maupin House Book. Gainesville. 341. Print.
Musselman, L. J. and W. F. Mann, Jr (1979). "Agalinis fasciculata (Scrophulariaceae), a native parasitic weed on commercial tree species in the southeastern United States." American Midland Naturalist 101: 459-464.
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. 960. Print.
Wunderlin, Richard P. and Bruce F. Hansen. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida. Second edition. 2003. University Press of Florida: Gainesville/Tallahassee/Tampa/Boca Raton/Pensacola/Orlando/Miami/Jacksonville/Ft. Myers. 546. Print.