Tephrosia florida

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Tephrosia florida,
Tephrosia floridanum PHFP B 2015-05-18 KMR.jpg
Photo taken by Kevin Robertson
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae ⁄ Leguminosae
Genus: Tephrosia
Species: T. florida
Binomial name
Tephrosia florida
(F.G. Dietrich) C.E. Wood
TEPH FLORIDA dist.JPG
Natural range of Tephrosia florida from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common names: Florida hoarypea, Florida goat’s-rue

Taxonomic notes

Synonym: Cracca ambigua (M.A. Curtis) Kuntze.[1]

Description

"Perennial herbs and shrubs with either monopodial or sympodial branching. Leaves odd-pinnate; leaflets 7-29 or rarely 1-41, entire, glabrous or pubescent above and always pubescent beneath, usually with prominent, parallel, secondary veins, estipellate, inflorescences terminal, axillary or apparently opposite a leaf, more or less racemose, with 2-10, papilionaceous, pedicellate flowers at each node with the cluster subtended by a bract and each pedicels subtended, 5-lobed, the lowers the long longest; petals clawed; stamens monadelphous or diadelphous. Legume sessile, linear, straight or slightly curved, usually compressed, nonseptate, dehiscing into 2 separate valves."[2]

"Perennial herb from a woody, cylindric taproot, stems prostrate to erect, to 6 dm long, sparsely to densely, appressed to spreading short-pubescent. Leaves 3-15 (28) cm long; leaflets 7-19, narrowly cuneate-oblong or narrowly to widely elliptic, mostly 1-5 cm long, (2) 5-18 mm wide, glabrous to moderately short-pubescent above and sparsely to moderately short-pubescent beneath. Principal inflorescences opposite the leaves, the smaller often terminal or axillary, 2-23 cm long, often longer than the neighboring leaf, with a conspicuously flattened peduncle and rachis and persistent, oblanceolate to liner bracts subtending pedicels 3-12 mm long. Calyx 3-4.5 mm long, appressed to spreading short-pubescent throughout; petals at first white, turning pink and then carmine (drying purplish), 10-16 mm long; stamens diadelphous. Legume 3-5 cm long, 4-6 mm broad, sparsely to moderately short-pubescent, trichomes 0.5 mm long or less."[2]

Distribution

Ecology

Habitat

Occurs in frequently burned upland pine-grassland communities, pine-palmetto-sand live oak flatwoods, upland turkey oak-longleaf pine woods, Quercus-Serenoa scrub, and pine-oak woods.[3] The communities include soil types ranging from sandy loams to sand (Ultisols, Spodosols, Entisols) (KMR). Human disturbed habitats include roadsides and fields.[3]

Associated genera and species: Galactia, Stylosanthes, Pityopsis, Rhynchosia, Desmodium, Spiranthes praecox, Cassytha, Rhynchosia, Indigofera, Opuntia, dwarf oaks, T. spicata, Alysicarpus ovalifolium , Desmodium lineatum, Lespedeza repens.[3]

Phenology

T. florida has been observed to flower May through October and fruit in May, June, August, October, and November.[3][4]

Seed dispersal

This species is thought to be dispersed by gravity. [5]

Fire ecology

Populations of Tephrosia florida have been known to persist through repeated annual burns,[6][7] and is a long-lived perennial that readily resprouts following frequent (up to annual) fires.

Conservation, cultivation, and restoration

T. florida is generally limited to herbaceous communities with limited shade and maintained with frequent fire, suggesting that it is sensitive to fire exclusion.

Cultural use

Photo Gallery

References and notes

  1. Weakley, A.S. 2015. Flora of the southern and mid-atlantic states. Working Draf of 21 May 2015. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
  2. 2.0 2.1 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. 625. Print.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: Harry E. Ahles, Loran C. Anderson, A.F. Clewell, Richard R. Clinebell II, M. Darst, R.K. Godfrey, J. Haesloop, R. Komarek, R. Kral, S.B. Jones, Samuel B. Jones Jr., O. Lakela, R.A. Norris, R.C. Phillips, H.R. Reed, J.D. Reynolds, A.B. Seymour, Cecil R. Slaughter, John K. Small, Jean Wooten. State and Counties:Florida: Calhoun, Collier, Columbia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Jackson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Wakulla, Washington. Georgia:Thomas. Mississippi: Lamar, Jackson, Pearl River. North Carolina: Scotland.
  4. Nelson, G. PanFlora: Plant data for the eastern United States with emphasis on the Southeastern Coastal Plains, Florida, and the Florida Panhandle. www.gilnelson.com/PanFlora/ Accessed: 14 DEC 2016
  5. Kirkman, L. Katherine. Unpublished database of seed dispersal mode of plants found in Coastal Plain longleaf pine-grasslands of the Jones Ecological Research Center, Georgia.
  6. Robertson, K.M. Unpublished data collected from Pebble Hill Fire Plots, Pebble Hill Plantation, Thomasville, Georgia.
  7. Platt, W.J., R. Carter, G. Nelson, W. Baker, S. Hermann, J. Kane, L. Anderson, M. Smith, K. Robertson. 2021. Unpublished species list of Wade Tract old-growth longleaf pine savanna, Thomasville, Georgia.