13 December 2023.
Okaloosa County, Florida, United States
Locality: Yellow River Water Management Area, found in an area where an unnamed unpaved road winds along the edges of the Yellow River. This unpaved road is accessed from Old River Road to the east near the junction with Shockley Springs Road. Individuals are found along the roadside for at least 6 kilometers from the point where the unnamed road splits and turns south.
Coordinates: 30.8265, -86.6089
(Map it)
Elevation: 23m.
Georeference protocol: Lat/lon determined by GPS
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Plants are growing primarily in part shade to shade in mesic conditions in a mixed evergreen and deciduous forest. Fruiting plants are more abundant where plants receive more sunlight. Slope: 0 to 2 percent. Aspect: Various. The underlying geology of this area is the Alum Bluff Group of Miocene origin. It includes the Chipola Formation, Oak Grove Sand, Shoal River Formation, Choctawhatchee Formation and the Jackson Bluff Formation. The formations included in this group are generally defined on the basis of their molluscan faunas and stratigraphic position. Puri (1953) described sediment facies as they relate to the formations of the Alum Bluff Group. These sediments are lithologically distinct as a group, not as individual units. The Alum Bluff Group crops out or is beneath a thin overburden in the western panhandle from river valleys in Okaloosa County eastward to western Jackson County. The Alum Bluff Group consists of clays, sands and shell beds which may vary from fossiliferous, sandy clays to unfossiliferous sands and clays and occasional carbonate beds. Mica is a common constituent and glauconite and phosphate occur sporadically. Induration varies from essentially nonindurated in sands to well indurated in carbonate lenses. Colors range from cream to olive gray with mottled reddish brown in weathered sections. Sand grain size varies from very fine to very coarse with sporadic occurrences of gravel. These sediments generally have low permeabilities and are part of the intermediate confining unit/aquifer system. (Source: USGS Florida Geologic Map Data.) The surface soil profile of this area is primarily Yemassee, Garcon, and Bigbee soils that are occasionally flooded. The Yemassee Series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained, moderately permeable, loamy soils that formed in marine sediments. These soils are on terraces and broad flats of the lower Coastal Plain and very strongly acid. Slopes range from 0 to 2 percent. The Garcon Series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained, moderately permeable soils on terraces and in the broad flats of the lower Coastal Plain. They formed in sandy and loamy marine sediments. This soil ranges from very strongly acid to extremely acid. The Bigbee series consists of very deep, excessively drained, rapidly permeable soils that are on natural levees and higher positions in flood plains along stream flood plains in the Southern Coastal Plain (MLRA 133A) and the Eastern Gulf Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 152A). They formed in thick sandy alluvial sediments. They range from strongly acid to very strongly acid. (Source: NRCS Web Soil Survey.)
Number of plants sampled: 15
Associated species: Rhododendron viscosum Serrulatum Group [originally listed as R. serrulatum]; Quercus laurifolia; Ilex opaca; Smilax sp.; Cyrilla racemiflora; Lyonia lucida; Ilex vomitoria; Arundinaria tecta; Rhododendron canescens; Persea palustris; Viburnum dentatum; Crataegus marshallii; Symplocos tinctoria; Vaccinium arboreum; Pinus palustris; Ilex glabra; Ilex coriacea; Oxydendrum arboreum; Gelsemium sempervirens; Quercus hemisphaerica; Vaccinium elliottii; Vitis rotundifolia [originally listed as Muscadinia rotundifolia]; Juniperus virginiana.
Comment: The plants growing in this area are multi-stemmed, deciduous spreading, irregularly upright to somewhat open rounded shrubs, approximately 2-3 m tall. Leaves with multicellular stipitate-glandular- and unicellular-hairs on the petiole; the blade is ovate to obovate, 3-11 cm long x 1.5-4.5 cm wide with entire margins. Fruits are capsules borne on erect pedicels and approximately 14-26 mm long; they are sparsely to densely stipitate-glandular-hairy, especially on the pedicel and lower portion of the capsule. Seeds collected from 15 plants.
Collector(s):