13 November 2024.
Santa Rosa County, Florida, United States
Locality: Woodland edge along the south side of Bud Bass Road (DOF B48), 0.30 kilometers east of the junction with Norman Riley Road.
Coordinates: 30.7576, -86.8018
(Map it)
Elevation: 32m.
Georeference protocol: Lat/lon determined by GPS
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Woodland edge. Slope: 3 percent. Aspect: North. The underlying geology of this area is characterized as Citronelle Formation of the Pliocene period. The Citronelle Formation is widespread in the Gulf Coastal Plain. The type section for the Citronelle Formation, named by Matson (1916), is near Citronelle, Alabama. The Citronelle Formation grades laterally, through a broad facies transition, into the Miccosukee Formation of the eastern Florida panhandle. Coe (1979) investigated the Citronelle Formation in portions of the western Florida panhandle. The Citronelle Formation is a siliciclastic, deltaic deposit that is lithologically similar to, and time equivalent with, the Cypresshead Formation and, at least in part, the Long Key Formation (Cunningham et al., 1998) of the peninsula. In the western panhandle, some of the sediments mapped as Citronelle Formation may be reworked Citronelle. The lithologies are the same and there are few fossils present to document a possible younger age. The Citronelle Formation consists of gray to orange, often mottled, unconsolidated to poorly consolidated, very fine to very coarse, poorly sorted, clean to clayey sands. It contains significant amounts of clay, silt and gravel which may occur as beds and lenses and may vary considerably over short distances. Limonite nodules and limonite-cemented beds are common. Marine fossils are rare but fossil pollen, plant remains and occasional vertebrates are found. Much of the Citronelle Formation is highly permeable. It forms the Sand and Gravel Aquifer of the surficial aquifer system contain organics. The dominant fossils in the freshwater carbonates are mollusks. (Source: USGS Florida Geologic Map Data). The soils of this are characterized as Lakeland Series Sand, 0 to 5 percent slopes. The Lakeland series consists of very deep, excessively drained, rapid to very rapidly permeable soils on uplands. They formed in thick beds of eolian or marine and/or fluvio-marine sands in the Southern Coastal Plain MLRA (133A), the Carolina and Georgia Sandhills (MLRA 137), the Eastern Gulf Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 152A) and the Atlantic Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 153A). Slopes are dominantly from 0 to 12 percent but can range to 85 percent in dissected areas. Thickness of the sand exceeds 200 cm. Silt plus clay in the 25 to 100 cm control section ranges from 5 to 10 percent. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout. (Source: California Soil Resource Lab/NRCS Official Soil Series Descriptions).
Number of plants sampled: 1
Associated species: Quercus hemisphaerica; Pinus palustris; Ilex opaca; Ilex vomitoria; Rhus glabra; Callicarpa americana; Symplocos tinctoria; Vaccinium elliottii; Gelsemium sempervirens; Passiflora incarnata; Eupatorium capillifolium; Hypericum sp.
Comment: This is a multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub. It has lodged over from the woodland edge due to branches from pines that fell on it. Otherwise, the plant would be about 5 meters tall. This specimen was noted by Tim Kiphart for its unusually dark, almost blackish-green foliage and very heavy fruiting. Collected as Ilex ambigua (Tim's dark-leaved heavy fruiter). The species is scattered, but not uncommon; however, this unique form was quite unusual. Seed collected from one plant. Observations by Tim Kiphart follow: While many of the plant species are consistently associated with Ilex ambigua, this site was more mesic than the typical xeric longleaf pine sandhill, xeric dune habitat. The leaf color was a very dark blackish green, and larger than the typical xeric form. The most notable feature of this individual was the size of the individual fruits, and the clusters of 3-7 fruits, opposed to the typical 1-2, whorled on the stems. [Note: cuttings from the parent plant were collected under field collection number 2024RJLFL-011.]