14 February 2023.
Orange County, Florida, United States
Locality: Plants growing in woodlands of Wekiwa Springs State Park on the north side of Palmetto Avenue between the road and a hiking trail that parallels it, approximately 0.36 kilometers northwest of the entrance ranger station. Plants are abundant at the collection site, but infrequent in the park.
Coordinates: 28.7132, -81.4651
(Map it)
Elevation: 13m.
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Plants were growing in shade to part-shade of a mesic to dry woodland habitat that is comprised of both deciduous and evergreen plants. The litter layer provides moisture retention to the sandy soils. The underlying geology of this area is of Pliocene origin and characterized as the Cypresshead Formation. The Cypresshead Formation named by Huddlestun (1988), is composed of siliciclastics and occurs only in the peninsula and eastern Georgia. It is at or near the surface from northern Nassau County southward to Highlands County forming the peninsular highlands. It appears that the Cypresshead Formation occurs in the subsurface southward from the outcrop region and similar sediments, the Long Key Formation, underlie the Florida Keys. The Cypresshead Formation is a shallow marine, near shore deposit equivalent to the Citronelle Formation deltaic sediments and the Miccosukee Formation prodeltaic sediments. The Cypresshead Formation consists of reddish brown to reddish orange, unconsolidated to poorly consolidated, fine to very coarse grained, clean to clayey sands. Cross bedded sands are common within the formation. Discoid quartzite pebbles and mica are often present. Clay beds are scattered and not areally extensive. In general, the Cypresshead Formation in exposure occurs above 100 feet (30 meters) above mean sea level (msl). Original fossil material is not present in the sediments although poorly preserved molds and casts of mollusks and burrow structures are occasionally present. The presence of these fossil "ghosts" and trace fossils documents marine influence on deposition of the Cypresshead sediments. The permeable sands of the Cypresshead Formation form part of the surficial aquifer system. Slopes 3-5%, Aspect: North.
Number of plants sampled: 3
Associated species: Smilax pumila, Callicarpa americana, Smilax sp., Magnolia grandiflora, Sabal palmetto, Gordonia lasianthus, Quercus nigra, Quercus phellos, Liquidambar styraciflua, Quercus virginiana, Pteridium aquilinum, Asimina parviflora, Quercus hemisphaerica, Chasmanthium sessiliflorum, Clematis sp., Carya glabra, Persea borbonia, Prunus umbellata, Prunus caroliniana, Rubus sp., Rhapidophyllum hystrix, Carex sp., Serenoa repens, Muscadinia rotundifolia
Comment: The plant(s) growing in this colony are deciduous, multi-stemmed, highly rhizomatous and spreading, with several hundred stems ranging in size from 20-100+ cm tall; these rhizomatously-derived stems are mostly single-stemmed and non-fertile, producing only leaves, some of which remain from the previous year. Random tug tests of these rhizomatously-derived stems indicated that they appear to be interconnected from common rhizomes (or roots). Occasionally, there are large multi-stemmed, clumping individuals in the colony with an upright, loosely irregular-rounded habit. These individuals are fertile (bearing post-flowering calyces) and range in size from 3-5 m tall x 2-3 m wide. Stems of mature specimens are smooth with mottled pale to dark gray and tan coloration; stem diameter ranges from 3.5-6.5 cm; stems and buds of current season’s growth are also densely hairy. The stems and branches of plants are generally thin and delicate except for infrequent suckering stems from rhizomes that are more robust. The colony found in this location covers an area of approximately 2,500 sq. meters. Plants are completely dormant; some plants have brown and dried leaves on the lower stems as well as end of season green to yellow leaves near the terminals of strongly vigorous stems. The leaves remaining from the previous year (mostly on vigorous suckering stems) are broadly-elliptic to nearly rounded or obovate, ranging in size from 5-13 cm long x 3.5-10 cm wide. The leaf base is strongly oblique and cuneate. The leaf apex is generally short to long acuminate on smaller leaves or broadly rounded to acute on large leaves. Leaves are prominently scalloped on upper half of the leaves. Surfaces adaxially are lustrous to dull green to yellow (in fall coloration) and sparsely hairy to glabrous; abaxially the leaves are pale green with heavy indumentum. Flowering remnants are present on mature plants in the colony. This is noted by the presence of calyces from recent flowering. The flowers are borne in clusters of 1-3 (occasionally more) with the calyces, adaxially yellow-yellowish green and strongly recurved; abaxially the calyces are strongly hairy. This collector is confident that more colonies of this species can be found in the area during the growing season and/or when flowering. It was observed during the investigation of the population that all fertile plants had evidence of insect galls typically found on Hamamelis virginiana. Generally speaking, the plants seemed typical for this species, except for the fact that leaves of plants that remained on the plants were quite hairy. This characteristic, has been observed on other populations of this species found in the Hill Country of Texas which may indicate that plants under extreme evapotranspiration stress develop more hairiness to reduce water loss. On the other hand, densely hairy leaves is also a typical characteristic of Hamamelis ovalis; however, the general growth form and stem growth of the plants as well as calyx coloration are inconsistent with Hamamelis ovalis, though, a number of the leaves from vigorous suckering stems resemble Hamamelis ovalis. Additionally, this collector has seen northern forms of Hamamelis virginiana produce rhizomatous/running properties in areas of thin, shallow, well-drained conditions (notably several thousand square meter patches in the Hawk Mountain area of eastern PA. This trait seems to be far more prominent in the Gulf Coast and southeastern U.S., though, where this rhizomatous character is far more common, perhaps, due to sandy and extremely well-drained conditions as well as environmental stress.
Collector(s):