FDACS DPI Tri-ology September - October 2009: Botany Section

	Jan/ Feb	Year to Date
Samples submitted by other DPI sections	982	982
Samples submitted for botanical identification only	94	94
Total Samples Submitted	1,076	1,076
Specimens added to the herbarium	10	10

Botany Section

Compiled by Richard E. Weaver, Jr., Ph.D., and Patti J. Anderson, Ph.D.

This section identifies plants for the Division of Plant Industry, as well as for other governmental agencies and private individuals. The Botany Section maintains a reference herbarium with over 10,000 plants and nearly 1,400 vials of seeds.

Carmona microphylla (Lam.) G. Don (Fukien tea), a genus of one Asian species. Boraginaceae. This shrub or tree with silver gray bark can grow to 10 m tall, but is often seen as a bonsai plant. The alternate, obovate leaves of Fukien tea, like many species in this family, are hispid, having unusual stiff, bristly hairs; they are shiny above and a dull, pale, green below with crenate or dentate margins towards the apex. The flower has a white corolla to 6.5 mm long with a limb to 9 mm. The fruit is a red or yellow drupe to 6 mm diameter. The scale of these tiny, long-lived flowers and fruit make this plant especially attractive to bonsai enthusiasts. Other members of this family might be more familiar to Florida gardeners, such as the forget-me-not (Myosotis spp.) or the once-thought-to-be-native Geiger tree (Cordia sebestena). Now escaped from cultivation, it can be found growing wild in South Florida. (Lee County; B2010-60; Roberto Delcid; 2 December 2009.) (Huxley 1992; Mabberly 1997; Wunderlin and Hansen 2003; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boraginaceae.)

Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Robins (Jack-in-the-bush, bitterbush or Siamweed), a genus of 165 species in subtropical and tropical America. Compositae/Asteraceae. This rambling shrub or subshrub is widely distributed in the Americas from Florida to the West Indies and from Texas to Argentina, but it has become naturalized throughout the Old World tropics. It is a noxious weed in many areas. It was formerly classified in Eupatorium, bearing a strong general resemblance to plants of that genus. It grows to about 3 m tall, with rambling, but not twining branches. The leaves are opposite; the blades are generally ovate in shape, with an acuminate apex; a broad, almost truncate base; and a margin that is entire or crenate with four to five coarse, rounded teeth on each side. The leaves are hairy, at least beneath, and range from 7-14 cm long and 30-80 cm wide, with petioles that are 1-2 cm long. Inflorescences are terminal, flat-topped panicles to 8 cm broad. The individual heads are cylindrical, about 1 cm long, with imbricated phyllaries and up to 25 white or pale purple disk florets. The achenes are crowned with a pappus of bristles, acting like parachutes and allowing the dry fruit to be widely dispersed by the wind. In Florida, this plant is commonly found in disturbed habitats such as roadsides, ditch banks, canal spoils and vacant lots, but also hammocks, in the peninsula south of Lake Okeechobee and also in Polk and Hillsborough counties. It has been mistaken for a noxious weed, Mikania micrantha, recently discovered in Florida, but that plant is a twining vine, with much smaller flower heads made up of only four non-imbricated phyllaries and four florets. Jack-in-the-bush is often somewhat weedy here in Florida, but it is a serious pest of plantation crops such as oil palms, teak, rubber and citrus in tropical Asia, Africa, the Pacific islands and Australia. It is also invading natural areas in these regions. Like many invasives, it was originally introduced as an ornamental and subsequently escaped from cultivation. (Miami-Dade County; B2010-81; Maria C. Acosta; 15 February 2010; and Miami-Dade County; B2010-84; Brian D. Saunders, USDA/CAPS; 17 February 2010.) (Liogier 1997; http://www.invasive.org/publications/Xsymposium/proceed/01pg81.pdf.)

Forestiera segregata (Jacq.) Krug & Urban (Florida swampprivet), a genus of 15 American species. Oleaceae. This species, sometimes also called wild olive or ink-bush, is an evergreen or semideciduous shrub or small tree to 3 m tall. Its gray twigs have a scattering of lenticels, and its opposite, 1.5-5 cm long leaves are punctate (marked by tiny dots) below. The leaves are sessile or have short (1-6 mm) petioles and entire margins. Small, greenish-yellow, staminate and pistillate flowers are borne in the leaf axils, usually early in spring. The fruits are ovoid, 5-7 mm in diameter, blue-black drupes that can stain skin and other surfaces, perhaps leading to the common name, “ink-bush.” This Florida native member of the olive family is found in almost every peninsular coastal county from Duval to Dixie. It was traditionally used to make arrows by the Miccosukee people. Warblers and vireos eat its fruit, making this species an excellent addition to wildlife-attracting landscapes as a hedge or specimen plant. (Miami-Dade County; B2010-92; Douglas A. Restom Gaskill and Brian D. Saunders, USDA/CAPS, and Trevor R. Smith, DPI/CAPS; 18 February 2010.) (Austin 2004; Godfrey 1988; www.floridaplants.com/landscape/birds; www.fs.fed.us/global/iitf/pdf/shrubs/Forestiera%20segregata.pdf.)

Gladiolus x hortulanus Bailey (florists’ gladiolus), a genus of approximately 195 species in Europe, the Mediterranean area, tropical Africa and especially South Africa. Iridaceae. This popular and beautiful plant has a complex history. Gladiolus breeding began in the 1820s when Dean Herbert hybridized several South African species in England. Some of these hybrids were named and distributed to nurseries. Other breeders added new species to the mix, and by the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the modern large-flowered hybrids were taking shape. As many as a dozen species may have been involved in their parentage. Today, these hybrids, with many named cultivars, are popular both as cut flowers and as garden plants. They grow from a modified, underground stem called a corm, often incorrectly referred to as a “bulb.” The two structures are actually quite distinct: a corm has a homogeneous consistency, while a bulb has layers or segments that can be easily separated, as in an onion. The corm is replaced every season by a new one, and each produces numerous cormlets (or cormels) from its base; each of these small propagules will grow into a blooming-size plant identical to its parent in a few years. The sword-shaped leaves are borne in a fan-like arrangement, as in many plants in the Iris family. The beautiful flowers have six tepals in a wide array of colors, and only three stamens, unlike other showy monocots such as lilies and daffodils, which have six stamens. Gladiolus are easy to grow in full sun and a sandy, well-drained soil. The spikes of flowers are very heavy, and they often cause the plant bearing them to fall over. To minimize the chances of this happening, the corms should be planted about six inches deep, but staking may still sometimes be necessary. The plants are perfectly cold-hardy here in Florida, but further north, the corms must be lifted each fall and stored for the winter. (Hendry County; B2010-35; Isaac Deal, et al., 20 January 2010.) (Mabberley 1997; http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/pbs/2005-August/022572.html.)

Lilium catesbaei Walter (Catesby’s lily, pine lily), a genus of approximately 100 species, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone, with a few extending into the subtropics. Liliaceae. This spectacular wildflower has among the largest flowers of any indigenous North American monocot. It is native to wet pine flatwoods and savannahs, especially in pitcher plant bogs, in the Coastal Plain from Virginia to Louisiana. It is found throughout Florida, but is less common in the extreme south and is absent from the Keys. The pine lily grows from a small bulb, less than an inch in diameter, and the solitary stems are usually less than 80 cm tall. Leaves are borne at the base of the stem and scattered along it. They are narrowly elliptical to linear, up to 8 cm long and 1 cm broad. Most plants have a solitary, up-facing flower at the apex of the stem, but vigorous individuals may have two or three. The flowers are as much as 10 cm across and are made up of six similar tepals. These have a broadened blade with a narrowly pointed, reflexed tip and an elongate, slender base, called a “claw.” They are mostly scarlet, or occasionally orange or pink, with a purple-spotted yellow blotch at the base. The six stamens are held stiffly erect. This beautiful plant is not yet rare in Florida, but it is declining as its habitat steadily decreases, and the fires to which it is adapted are suppressed. Therefore, it is placed on Florida’s list of threatened plants. Although it is relatively easy to propagate and is certainly garden worthy, the pine lily is rarely seen in cultivation, basically because it is difficult to grow. (Lee County; B2010-58; Roberto Delcid, 3 December 2009.) (Skinner 2002.)

Piriqueta cistoides (L.) Griseb. subsp. caroliniana (Walter) Arbo (pitted stripeseed), a genus of 21 tropical African and American species. Turneraceae. This perennial species, 15-50 cm tall, has spreading roots that form new sprouts and a stem that is sometimes woody near the base. The plants in Florida are more or less covered with stellate hairs and may have long, unbranched, brownish hairs along the stem. The alternate leaves have short or no petioles and linear to lanceolate blades (2-5 cm long and 1-1.5 cm wide) with entire or crenate margins and dense, stellate pubescence covering the underside. The five petals of the flower are a bright yellow to yellow-orange; the fringed stigma is shorter than the five stamens in some individuals and longer in others, a characteristic known as “heterostyly.” The seeds, which inspired the common name, are light-brown or gray, 1.5-2 mm long, and both pitted and striped. The seed also has an oil-rich aril, or elaiosome, often associated with seed dispersal by ants that carry seeds to their nest. The ant larvae eat the aril, but not the seed itself. This charming wildflower has been documented to grow in almost every county in Florida. (Miami-Dade County; B2010-93; Olga Garcia; 23 February 2010.) (Correll and Correll 1982; Hammer 2004; McBreen and Cruzan 2004; Wunderlin and Hansen 2003.)

References

Austin, D. F. 2004. Florida Ethnobotany. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida. 909 p.

Correll, D.S. and H.B. Correll. 1982. Flora of the Bahama Archipelago. J. Cramer, Hirschberg, Germany. 1,692 p.

Godfrey, R.K. 1988. Trees, shrubs and woody vines of northern Florida and adjacent Georgia and Alabama. University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia. 735 p.

Hammer, R. 2004. Florida Keys wildflowers: a field guide to wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and woody vines of the Florida Keys. Falcon Press, Guilford, Connecticut. 231 p.

Huxley, A.J. (editor). 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. 4 volumes. Macmillan Press, London, England. 3,240 p.

Liogier, H.A. 1997. Eupatorium, in Descriptive flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands 5:283 – 295.

Mabberley, D.J. 1997. The plant-book, 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England. 858 p.

McBreen, K. and M. B. Cruzan. 2004. A case of recent long-distance dispersal in the Piriqueta caroliniana complex. Journal of Heredity 95: 356-361.

Skinner, M.W. 2002. Lilium, Flora of North America 26: 172 – 197.

Wunderlin, R. P. and B. F. Hansen. 2003. Guide to the vascular plants of Florida, 2nd edition. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. 787 p.

Sample Submissions

Botany Section

References