31 October 2022.
Texas, United States
Locality: Plants growing at Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center Orange, TX along Adams Bayou, accessed via internal service roads. Plant is relatively common along Adams Bayou but scattered in the understory.
Coordinates: 30.1004, -93.7529
(Map it)
Elevation: 1m.
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Plants are growing in part-shade to shade of a Taxodium distichum-Nyssa aquatica dominated forested swampland associated with Adams Bayou in a wet low-lying area that is frequently inundated.
Soils: The underlying geology of this area is of Quaternary to Late Pleistocene origin and comprised of the Beaumont Formation. This formation is yellowish- to brownish-gray, locally reddish orange with very fine to fine quartz sand, silt, and minor fine gravel, intermixed and interbedded. It also includes stream channel, point-bar, cravasse-splay, and natural levee ridge deposits, and clayey fill in abandoned channels. Channel fill is dark brown to brownish-gray with laminated clay and silt that is organic-rich. Includes marine delta-front sand, lagoonal clay, and near-shore marine sand beneath and landward of bays along the coast. Depth of this unconsolidated outwash ranges from 3-100 meters thick.
Source: USGS Texas Geologic Map Data (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/sgmc-unit.php?unit=TXQbs%3B0)
The primary soil types in the collection area are classified as Cowmarsh series. The Cowmarsh series consists of very deep, very poorly drained soils that formed in mucky silty clayey alluvial deposits of Holocene age. These depressional soils are oxbows and relict channels of rivers where flooding and ponding is frequent. Slope ranges from 0 to 1 percent but mainly less than 1 percent. very poorly drained. Runoff is negligible. Frequently flooded for very long periods from February through May and surface remains saturated for very long periods once flood waters have receded.
Source: NRCS Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx)
Number of plants sampled: 1
Associated species: Taxodium distichum, Nyssa aquatica, Carya aquatica, Itea virginica, Symphyotrichum sp., Hymenocallis liriosme, Iris virginica, Persicaria punctata, Cephalanthus occidentalis, Carex sp., Crinum americanum, Smilax sp., Rubus sp., Quercus lyrata, Hibiscus coccineus, Ulmus americana, Sambucus canadensis, Quercus virginiana, Sabal minor, Fraxinus caroliniana, Quercus nigra, Quercus laurifolia, Toxicodendron radicans, Celtis tenuifolia, Liquidambar styraciflua, Typha latifolia, Salix sp., Acer drummondii, Hymenocallis occidentalis, Sagittaria lancifolia, Physostegia intermedia, Itea virginica, Desmodium sp., Ambrosia trifida, Commelina virginiana, Ampelopsis arborea, Pontederia cordata, Cornus foemina, Salix nigra, Vigna luteola, Peltandara virginica, Polygonum pensylvanicum, Rubus trivialis, Ipomoea sp., Pleopeltis polypodioides, Ludwigia octovalis, Baccharus halimifolia, Triadica sebifera, Lygodium japonicum, Saururus cernuus, Tillandsia usneoides, Smilax glauca, Rhynchospora corniculata, Ludwigia sp., Cyperus sp., Boehmeria cylindrica, Chasmanthium latifolium
Comment: The plants (non-fruiting as well as the single fruiting individual) are multi-stemmed broadleaved evergreen shrubs with a suckering irregular upright spreading habit ranging from 1.5-2 meters tall x 1-3 meters wide. Leaves are alternate, evergreen and linear-oblanceolate to obovate and leathery, ranging in size from 2.5-5.5 cm long x 0.4-2 cm wide. Leaf margins vary from entire to coarsely serrate beyond the middle with the apex acute to slightly rounded. Leaves are dark green above and pale yellow-green beneath often with both surfaces densely glandular; glands yellow. Leaves are aromatic when crushed. Fruits are globose and tiny, 2-4 mm in diameter; fruit wall has enlarged protuberances and a thick coat of blue-white wax; fruit are borne in clusters or singly on a short woody peduncle, 1-3 mm long.
Collector(s):