Cnidoscolus stimulosus
| Cnidoscolus stimulosus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
| Class: | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Order: | Euphorbiales |
| Family: | Euphorbiaceae |
| Genus: | Cnidoscolus |
| Species: | C. stimulosus |
| Binomial name | |
| Cnidoscolus stimulosus (Michx.) Govaerts | |
| |
| Natural range of Cnidoscolus stimulosus from USDA NRCS Plants Database. | |
Common name: finger rot
Contents
Taxonomic notes
Synonyms: C. urens (Linnaeus) Arthur var. stimulosus (Michaux) Govaerts; Bivonea stimulosa (Michaux) Rafinesque
Description
Cnidoscolus stimulosus is a perennial herbaceous species. It tends to grow erect from a tuberous base, and is marked by the presence of urticating hairs (FSU Herbarium).
Cnidoscolus stimulosus is a herbaceous, monoecious, erect or reclining perennial, growing 0.5-10 dm tall with palmately dissected or lobed, alternate leaves. The entire plant is covered with stinging trichomes. The leaf lobes or dissections lobed or prominently dentate, very rarely entire. The inflorescence is terminal, compound, dichasial cyme, often appearing axillary because of the elongation of axillary branches with terminal inflorescence. The central flower in each dischasium is uaully pistillate, the lateral is usually staminate. The calyx is white in color, salverform, the tube grows 1-1.5 cm long, equaling or almost equalling the lobes. The petals are absent. There are 10-30 stamens, united at the base. There are 3 stigmas, each with 3-5 lobes. The capsule is 3-locular, each locule is 1-seeded. The seeds are dark-brown in color, growing 8-9 mm long, and 4-5 mm broad, with a conspicuous caruncle at the base (Radford 1964).
Distribution
Ecology
Habitat
Cnidoscolus stimulosus is found in sparsely canopied upland habitats that occur on deep, well drained, sandy substrate suitable for construction of Gopher tortoise burrows. It also occurs in dry sandy flatwoods,[1] sandy barrens, mixed hardwood hammocks, sand dunes, and longleaf pine-wiregrass-scrub oak sand ridges (FSU Herbarium). Cnidoscolus stimulosus is a feature of sandhill communities with frequent occurrence in the understorey.[2] Finally, it occurs in some disturbed areas, such as roadsides, old fields, bulldozed clearings, railways, and residential lawns (FSU Herbarium).
Phenology
It has three seeds fruit and produce seeds with elaiosomes”[2]
This species was observed flowering in January, March through August, and December (FSU Herbarium). Fruiting was observed April through August and in December (FSU Herbarium).
Kevin Robertson has observed this species flower within three months of burning. KMR
Seed dispersal
“In all of these species, seeds are forcefully expelled after the fruit matures and dries. Three of the ballistic euphorbs (C. stimulosus, C. argyranthemus and S. sylvatica) produce seeds with elaiosomes and all of the ballistic species are collected by ants, in particular Pogonomyrex badius Latreille (Long and Lakela 1971; N.E. Stamp and J. R. Lucas, personal observation).” [2] According to Kay Kirkman, a plant ecologist, this species disperses by explosion mechanisms or by ants. [3]
Fire ecology
It is included in the flowering plant survery – post burn – in Heuberger’s study.[4] Cnidoscolus stimulosus was one of the plant species to increase in abundance recovery post-fire in Rosemary scrub ecosystem.[5] Cnidoscolus stimulosus also resprouted post-burn after fire was reinstated into the ecosystem.[6]
It resprouts and flowers within two months of burning in the growing season.KMR Overall, the species appears to be tolerant of fire, and potentially benefits from it, but it does not seem to be dependent on the presence of fire on the landscape (FSU Herbarium).
Use by animals
“Seeds were found in middens of harvester-ant nests of Pogonomyremex badius Latreille. In addition, seeds of all three plant species were observed being carried into the ant nests and then later deposited uneaten at the nest perimeter.”[2] Gopher tortoises (juveniles and adults) feed on Cnidoscolus stimulosus. Included in gopher tortoises’ scat.[7]
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. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: H. E. Ahles, L. C. Anderson, W. R. Anderson, L. Baltzell, D. Burch, K. C. Burks, R. J. Campana, J. Carmichael, A. F. Clewell, D. Demaree, F. S. Earle, P. Elliot, D. L. Fichtner, T. Floyd, E. Freeman, W. B. Fox, H. Gale, M. A. Garland, H. E. Grelen, W. T. Gillis, R. K. Godfrey, J. Haesloop, B. K. Holst, C. Hudson, P. Jones, W. Kittredge, G. R. Knight, R. Komarek, R. Kral, D. W. Mather, S. McDaniel, R. S. Mitchell, S. J. Noyes, K. Oakes, G. W. Ramsey, G. W. Reinert, A. B. Seymour, D. B. Ward, J. H. Wiese, and R. L. Wilbur. States and Counties: Alabama: Geneva. Florida: Alachua, Bay, Broward, Calhoun, Citrus, Dade, Franklin, Gadsden, Hernando, Jackson, Jefferson, Lake, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Monroe, Nassau, Okaloosa, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, Suwannee, and Wakulla. Georgia: Bullock, Grady, and Thomas. Mississippi: near Ocean Springs, George, and Forrest. North Carolina: Carteret, Cleveland, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Hertford, and Pender.
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. 661-2. Print.
- ↑ Glitzenstein, J. S., D. R. Streng, et al. (2003). [Abstract] Long-term seasonal burning at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, north Florida: changes in the sandhill plots after 23 years. Second International Wildland Fire Ecology and Fire Management Congress and Fifth Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, Orlando, FL, American Meteorological Society.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Stamp, N. E. and J. R. Lucas (1990). "Spatial patterns and dispersal distances of explosively dispersing plants in Florida sandhill vegetation." Journal of Ecology 78: 589-600.
- ↑ Kay Kirkman, unpublished data, 2015.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Menges, E. S. and N. M. Kohfeldt (1995). "Life History Strategies of Florida Scrub Plants in Relation to Fire." Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 122(4): 282-297.
- ↑ Reinhart, K. O. and E. S. Menges (2004). "Effects of re-introducing fire to a central Florida sandhill community." Applied Vegetation Science 7: 141-150.
- ↑ Birkhead, R. D., C. Guyer, et al. (2005). "Patterns of folivory and seed ingestion by gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) in a southeastern pine savanna." American Midland Naturalist 154: 143-151
