week 6 local flora

Inconspicuous herb. Parasitic myco-parasite lacking leaves or chlorophyll, growing at the base of trees. Purple, unbranched flowering stem with solitary flowers with parts in multiples of three.

Apteria aphylla (nodding nixie)

Shrub or tree with alternate, narrowly ovate, coriaceous leaves. Long, unbranched wand-like stems; trunks with red, shreddy bark. Capsules.

Agarista populifolia (Florida hobblebush)

Herb. Leaves opposite, glabrous, crenate-serrate. Tiny white flowers in numerous discoid heads.

Ageratina jucunda (Hammock snakeroot)

Shrub. Long, wide, obovate leaves on brown stem. Reddish-brown hairs on leaves and stems. Crushed leaf smells like green pepper. Lumpy banana-shaped fruits.

Asimina obovata (netted pawpaw)

Herb. Leaves whored. Leaf underside and stems covered with silky, fine matted pubescence. Flowers small, white, in terminal panicles.

Eriogonum tomentosum (wild buckwheat)

Herb. White woolly flowers on tall flowering stalks. Leaves opposite, narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic, occurring on the ower third of the stem.

Froelichia floridana (cottonweed)

Shrub. Leaves wavy, sticky to touch. Lavender flowers in flat-topped clusters of discoid heads. Florida endemic.

Garberia heterophylla (garberia)

Herb. Small ground-creeper. Leaves opposite, dark green. Flowers in pairs, tiny, white, 4-petals. Fruit a bright red-orange berry formed from two flowers.

Mitchella repens (partridge-berry)

Tree. Crushed leaf has aromatic odor ("bay leaf" used in cooking is a related species). Leaf underside fuzzy with fine pubescence.

Persea palustris (Swamp bay)

A "large" moss up to 6 cm tall, growing at the base of trees on in moist soil. Stems upright with narrow toothed leaves, looking like a miniature group of pines. Stems become twisted and leaning as they dry out.

Pyrrhobryum spiniforme (Pyrrhobryum)

Small to medium-size tree. Leaves glabrous, deeply lobed, lobes bristle-tipped.

Quercus laevis (turkey oak)

Creeping vine. No prickles! Leaves pubescent, with 3 main veins arising from base. Pair of tendrils at base of each leaf.

Smilax pumila (Sarsaparilla vine)

Grass. Grows in tall bunches. Showy inflorescences in fall, bracts with bronze to brown hairs, long, twisted, reddish-brown awns, and bright yellow anthers. The inflorescence occurs on one side of the rachis. Leaf sheaths finely pubescent.

Sorghastrum secundum (Lopsided Indiangrass)

Shrub to small tree. Leaf obovate to wide-elliptic, very shiny on top. Flowers cup-shaped, white, pendulous (hanging down). Fruit a berry.

Vaccinium arboreum (sparkleberry)