12 December 2022.
Monroe County, Alabama, United States
Locality: Plants growing in the woodlands at Haines Island Park at the foot of Tallahatta cuesta, accessed by foot via Ferry Road. Common at this site.
Coordinates: 31.7218, -87.4659
(Map it)
Elevation: 66m.
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Plants are growing in part-shade to shade of a moist mesic, well-drained conditions on rocks and in the eroding matrix of the Tallahatta Questa.
Soils: The underlying geology of this area is Claiborne Group, Tallahatta Formation, of Eocene origin, with white to very light-greenish-gray thin-bedded to massive siliceous claystone; interbedded with thin layers of fossiliferous clay, sandy clay, and glauconitic sand and sandstone.
Source: USGS Alabama Geological Map Data (https://mrdata.usgs.gov/geology/state/state.php?state=AL)
The primary soil type in the collection area is classified as Arundel Loam soil (8 to 35 percent slopes). The Arundel Series consists of moderately deep, well drained, very slowly permeable soils on dissected uplands of the Southern Coastal Plain. They formed in marine deposits consisting of acid clays underlain by horizontally bedded sandstone, buhrstone and siltstone. These soils are strongly acid. Slopes range from 2 to 60 percent.
Source: NRCS Web Soil Survey (https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx)
Number of plants sampled: 10
Associated species: Swida alternifolia, Rubus sp., Carya glabra, Bignonia capreolata, Solidago caesia, Muscadinia rotundifolia, Lindera benzoin, Styrax americanus, Ilex opaca, Actaea pachypoda, Carpinus caroliniana, Hexastylis arifolia, Liquidambar styraciflua, Decumaria barbara, Fraxinus pensylvanica, Hydrangea arborescens, Tilia americana, Magnolia macrophylla, Magnolia grandiflora, Symplocos tinctoria, Aralia spinosa, Aesculus parviflora, Liriodendron tulipifera, Platanus occidentalis, Toxicodendron radicans, Smilax sp., Quercus hemisphaerica, Quercus michauxii, Quercus alba, Kalmia latifolia, Fagus grandifolia, Panax quinquefolius, Carex sp., Arisaema dracontium, Polystichum acrostichoides, Illicium floridanum, Pinus taeda
Comment: This species is a multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub, forming a broadly spreading shape with upright irregularly arching branches. Plants are very coarsely textured with few branches. At maturity this shrub is approximately 3-4 meters tall x 3-4 meters wide. Leaves are simple and opposite with a general ovate leaf shape similar in outline to a red oak, with 3-7 lobes. Leaves are densely hairy and glabrous to sparsely hairy beneath. Leaves range in size from 15-30 cm long x 10-20 cm wide. Stems are densely hairy and orangish brown in youth and exfoliating with papery cinnamon to orange-brown color in maturity. Tiny dehiscent capsuled fruit are borne in large terminal panicles with several hundred fruits in each panicle; some fruit clusters within the panicle are subtended by white to green sterile four-petaled flowers that are persistent. Panicles range from 10-25 cm long and wide. Note: The plants found at this site are particularly robust and possess unusually large leaves. Seedlings previously propagated from this population have proven to maintain this robust trait.
Collector(s):