Buchnera floridana, the Florida bluehearts, is a species of flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae.[2] It is native to the southeastern USA, Texas, eastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Panama, and most of the Caribbean islands.[1] A hemiparasitic biennial, it is found mostly in wet areas such as open pinelands, flatwoods, and pitcher-plant bogs of the Gulf Coastal Plain.[2]
Description
B. floridana is a hairy perennial with simple, erect stems that grow between 40-80 cm tall. The oppositely-arranged leaves are elliptic to ovate-lanceolate in shape with entire or irregularly serrate margins. The leaves grow 5-15 mm wide and 3-7 cm long. Unlike Buchnera americana, the leaves are not 3-veined.[3]
The inflorescence of B. floridana is an open spike with bilaterally symmetrical flowers that are purple or white in color. The flowers have 5 petals that form a tube and bend abruptly at right angles. There are up to four fertile stamens, each bearing anthers with a single pollen sac. The capsule seed is 5-6 mm in size and ovoid or pyriform in shape.[3]
Ecology
B. floridana is mostly restricted to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. Habitats include pine savannas, flatwoods, seepage bogs, and sandy roadsides[4]
1 2 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.
↑ Weakley, A. S. (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Herbarium.
↑ Hilmon, J. B. (1964). "Plants of the Caloosa Experimental Range " U.S. Forest Service Research Paper SE-12
↑ 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.
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