Acalypha virginica

Last updated

Acalypha virginica
Acalypha virginica Arkansas.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Genus: Acalypha
Species:
A. virginica
Binomial name
Acalypha virginica
L.

Acalypha virginica, commonly called Virginia threeseed mercury [2] or Virginia copperleaf, [3] is a plant in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). It is native to the eastern United States. [4] [5] It is found in a variety of natural habitats, particularly in open woodlands and along riverbanks. [5] [6] It is a somewhat weedy species that responds positively to ecological disturbance, and can be found in degraded habitats such as agricultural fields. [6]

Acalypha virginica is an erect herbaceous annual growing to 50 centimetres (20 in) tall. It is monoecious, and produces small greenish axillary flowers with no petals. It blooms in summer through fall. [5] It bears a similarity to Acalypha gracilens which occupies much of its geographic range. Acalypha virginica can be distinguished by its pistillate bracts which are hirsute and lack glands (vs. Acalypha gracilens, which has pistillate bracts that are sparsely pubescent and red-glandular). [5]

For conservation, Acalypha virginica is considered to be globally secure. [1] It is a common species throughout much of its range, and is found in a wide variety of habitats. [6] [7] However, it becomes uncommon at the edges of its range, and is listed as a special concern species in Connecticut. [8] In Maine, the only documented occurrence of this species was collected from Parsonsfield in 1902, and it is currently thought to be extirpated from the state. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Silene virginica</i> Species of flowering plant

Silene virginica, the fire pink, is a wildflower in the pink family, Caryophyllaceae. It is known for its distinct brilliant red flowers. Fire pink begins blooming in late spring and continuing throughout the summer. It is sometimes grown in wildflower, shade, and rock gardens.

<i>Claytonia virginica</i> Species of plant

Claytonia virginica, the Virginia springbeauty, eastern spring beauty, grass-flower or fairy spud, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the family Montiaceae. Its native range is eastern North America. Its scientific name honors Colonial Virginian botanist John Clayton (1694–1773).

<i>Tiarella</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Saxifragaceae

Tiarella, the foamflowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Saxifragaceae. The generic name Tiarella means "little turban", which suggests the shape of the seed capsules. Worldwide there are seven species, one each in eastern Asia and western North America, plus five species in eastern North America. As of October 2022, the taxonomy of Tiarella in eastern North America is in flux.

<i>Trillium luteum</i> Species of plant

Trillium luteum, the yellow trillium or yellow wakerobin, is a species of flowering plant in the bunchflower family Melanthiaceae. It is a member of the Trillium cuneatum complex, a closely-related group of sessile-flowered trilliums. The species is endemic to the southeastern United States, especially in and around the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina.

<i>Trillium sessile</i> Species of flowering plant

Trillium sessile is a species of flowering plant in the bunchflower family Melanthiaceae. The specific epithet sessile means "attached without a distinct stalk", an apparent reference to its stalkless flower. It is commonly known as toadshade or toad trillium. It is also called sessile trillium or sessile-flowered wake-robin, however it is not the only member of the genus with a sessile flower.

<i>Allium cernuum</i> Species of flowering plant

Allium cernuum, known as nodding onion or lady's leek, is a perennial plant in the genus Allium. It grows in open areas in North America.

<i>Acalypha californica</i> Species of flowering plant

The flowering shrub Acalypha californica is known as the California copperleaf, and sometimes by the older name Pringle three-seeded mercury. It is the only Acalypha species native to California, where it is most abundant in the hills of San Diego County. It is a member of the chaparral plant community.

<i>Anaphalis margaritacea</i> Species of flowering plant

Anaphalis margaritacea, commonly known as the western pearly everlasting or pearly everlasting, is an Asian and North American species of flowering perennial plant in the family Asteraceae.

<i>Acalypha rhomboidea</i> Species of flowering plant

Acalypha rhomboidea is a plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae.

<i>Corylus americana</i> Species of flowering plant

Corylus americana, the American hazelnut or American hazel, is a species of deciduous shrub in the genus Corylus, native to the eastern and central United States and extreme southern parts of eastern and central Canada.

<i>Solidago rugosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Solidago rugosa, commonly called the wrinkleleaf goldenrod or rough-stemmed goldenrod, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widespread across eastern and central Canada and the eastern and central United States. It is usually found in wet to mesic habitats.

<i>Carex pensylvanica</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex pensylvanica is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family commonly called Pennsylvania sedge. Other common names include early sedge, common oak sedge, and yellow sedge.

<i>Anchistea</i> Genus of ferns

Anchistea is a genus of leptosporangiate ferns in the family Blechnaceae. It has only one species, Anchistea virginica the Virginia chain fern, which has long creeping, scaly, underground stems or rhizomes giving rise to tall widely separated, deciduous, single leaves. In contrast, the leaves of Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, which can be mistaken for A. virginica, grow in a group from a crown. Also in contrast to O. cinnamomeum the leaves are monomorphic without distinct fertile fronds. The lower petiole or stipe is dark purple to black, shiny and swollen, the upper rachis is dull green. The leaf blade is green and lanceolate, composed of 12 to 23 paired, alternate pinnatifid pinnae. The pinnae are subdivided into 15 to 20 paired segments that are ovate to oblong. The lower rachis is naked for about half its length. The sori or spore-producing bodies are found on the underside of the pinnae and are long and form a double row which outlines the major veins of the pinnae. In common with all ferns, A. virginica exhibits a gametophyte stage in its life cycle and develops a haploid reproductive prothallus as an independent plant. The spores are produced in red-brown sori which line the spaces (areolae) between the costa and costules. Further photographs can be found at the Connecticut Botanical Society and Ontario Ferns websites.

<i>Symphyotrichum prenanthoides</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to North America

Symphyotrichum prenanthoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name crookedstem aster. It is native to northcentral and northeastern North America.

<i>Cardamine douglassii</i> Species of flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae

Cardamine douglassii, the limestone bittercress or purple cress, is a perennial forb native to the eastern and central United States as well as the province of Ontario in Canada, that produces white to pink or purple flowers in early spring.

<i>Acalypha ostryifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Acalypha ostryifolia, sometimes spelled ostryaefolia, is a plant in the family Euphorbiaceae and is commonly known as hophornbeam copperleaf, hornbeam copperleaf, or pineland threeseed mercury, is an annual herb of the copperleaf genus Acalypha. It is a native of North and Central America and is generally considered a weed.

<i>Carex blanda</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex blanda, the common woodland sedge or eastern woodland sedge, is a sedge native to a wide variety of habitats in the eastern and central United States and Canada.

<i>Claytonia rosea</i> Species of flowering plant

Claytonia rosea, commonly called Rocky Mountain spring beauty, western springbeauty or Madrean springbeauty, is a diminutive spring blooming ephemeral plant with pale pink to magenta flowers. It grows a small round tuberous root and it one of the earliest wildflowers of spring in its range. It is found in dry meadows in forests of ponderosa and Chihuahuan pines, and moist ledges of mountain slopes of the Beaver Dam Mountains of Utah, Colorado Front Range, and Sierra Madre Occidental, south and east to the Sierra Maderas del Carmen of Coahuila.

<i>Symphyotrichum shortii</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to North America

Symphyotrichum shortii, commonly called Short's aster, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is primarily found in interior areas east of the Mississippi River. Its natural habitat is in thin rocky soils of woodlands and thickets often around limestone bluffs. It is common throughout much of its range, although it is generally restricted to intact natural communities.

<i>Acalypha monococca</i> Species of flowering plant

Acalypha monococca, commonly called slender threeseed mercury, is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in the South Central and Midwestern regions of the United States, primarily west of the Mississippi River. Its natural habitat is in dry, sunny, sandy or rocky areas, in prairies, barrens, or woodlands.

References

  1. 1 2 NatureServe (5 May 2023). "Acalypha virginica". NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia: NatureServe. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Acalypha virginica". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  3. Weakley, Alan S. (30 November 2012). "Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft" (PDF). pp. 608–609. Retrieved 17 May 2023 via North Carolina Biological Garden.
  4. "Acalypha virginica". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Levin, Geoffrey A.; Gillespie, Lynn J. (2016). "Acalypha virginica". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 12. New York and Oxford. Retrieved 17 May 2023 via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  6. 1 2 3 Hilty, John (2020). "Acalypha virginica". Illinois Wildflowers. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  7. Yatskievych, George (2006). Flora of Missouri. Vol. 2. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. p. 1017. ISBN   1930723490.
  8. Connecticut's Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern Species 2015 State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
  9. Acalypha virginica Rare Plant Factsheet Maine Natural Areas Program. Retrieved 17 May 2023.