Buchnera floridana

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Buchnera floridana
Buch flor.jpg
Photo by John R. Gwaltney, Southeastern Flora.com
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Order: Scrophulariales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Buchnera
Species: B. floridana
Binomial name
Buchnera floridana
L.
BUCH AMER dist.jpg
Natural range of Buchnera floridana from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Taxonomic notes

Synonyms: Buchnera americana; B. longifolia Swartz by misattribution; B. floridana; B. breviflora Pennell by misattribution; B. elongata Swartz; B. americana

Description

For the genus Buchnera, is hispid to pilose perennials with erect, simple stems growing up to 4-8 dm tall. The entire plant turns black when dried. The leaves are opposite, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate in shape, grows up to 3-7 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, and is reduced above. The leaves are entire or irregularly serrate or crenulate, sessile. The inflorescence is an open spike, the flower are in the axils of opposite bracts and subtended by 2 bractlets. The calyx tube is cylindrical, grows up to 3.5-5 mm long, the lobes 5, lanceolate in shape, slightly unequal, up to 1 mm or less long. The corolla is purple or white in color, subsalverform, weakly zygomorphic, lobes 5, shorter than the calyx tube. Up to 4 fertile stamens are present with anthers with only a single sac. The capsule is ovoid or pyriform, grows up to 5-6 mm long and is loculicidal in shape[1].

Specifically, for Buchnera floridana, the leaves are not 3-veined or not as conspicuous are B. americana. The leaves are lanceolate to elliptic in shape. The corolla tube grows up to 8-10 mm long and the lobes grow up to 4-5 mm long. Flowers from April to October[1].

Distribution

Mostly restricted to the coastal plain[2].

Ecology

It is a host plant of Brevipalpus phoenicis, which vectors viral diseases like citrus leprosis[3].

Habitat

Habitats include low lying swamp and sandy acidic pine and palm barrens[4]. This species has been observed in Everglades National Park[5].

Phenology

B. floridana flowers and fruits all year[5]. Flowers are blue-violet or white and bisexual with a superior ovary.

Fire ecology

Thrives in fire-maintained pine graminoid ecosystems in strongly acidic soils[2].

Conservation and Management

Cultivation and restoration

Photo Gallery

References and notes

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. 954-5. Print.

  1. 1.0 1.1 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. 954-5. Print.
  2. 2.0 2.1 [[1]]Accessed: April 4, 2016
  3. Childers, C. C., J. C. V. Rodrigues, et al. (2003). "Host plants of Brevipalpus californicus, B. obovatus, and B. phoenicis (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) and their potential involvement in the spread of viral diseases vectored by these mites." Experimental & Applied Acarology 30: 29-105.
  4. [[2]]
  5. 5.0 5.1 Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: V. I. Sullivan and J. Wooten. States and Counties: Florida: Monroe. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "fsu" defined multiple times with different content