17 March 2025.
Baldwin County, Alabama, United States
Locality: Blackwater River [a branch of the Perdido River]: plants were reached by boat.
Coordinates: 30.4871, -87.4411
(Map it)
Elevation: 4m.
Georeference protocol: Lat/lon determined by GPS
Habitat: Wild Habitat
Environment description: Part shade to full sun on low, sandy terraces and short, sandy hills on a dry, exposed sandy edge of a low bluff along the river. Slope: 1 to 8 percent. Elevation: 2 to 6 meters. The underlying geology of this area is characterized as Alluvial Coastal and Low Terrace Deposits of the Holocene. They are comprised of varicolored fine to coarse quartz sand containing clay lenses and gravel in places. Gravel composed of quartz and chert pebbles and assorted metamorphic and igneous rock fragments in streams near the Piedmont. In areas of the Valley and Ridge province gravel composed of angular to subrounded chert, quartz, and quartzite pebbles. Coastal deposits include fine to medium quartz sand with shell fragments and accessory heavy minerals along Gulf beaches and fine to medium quartz sand, silt, clay, peat, mud and ooze in the Mississippi Sound, Little Lagoon, bays, lakes, streams, and estuaries. (Source: USGS Alabama Geologic Map Data). Reference Note: The soils of this “island” location along the Blackwater tributary of the Perdido River are _inaccurately_ defined as Swamp that is primarily comprised of Chowan (40%), Dorovan (30%), Levy (15%), and other Minor (15%) soil series. This observation is based upon numerous visits to this location over several years and the preponderance of evidence based upon the extensive dry mesic/xeric plant community observed here. The soils are, instead, characteristic of the nearby Lakeland Loamy Fine Sand Series, 0 to 5 percent slopes with a small contribution (5%) from the Bibb Series. 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).
Associated species: Gaylussacia dumosa; Quercus geminata; Quercus virginiana; Ilex opaca; Arundinaria sp. [listed as Arundinaria gigantea/tecta]; Rhododendron viscosum Serrulatum Group [listed as R. serrulatum]; Oxydendrum arboreum; Vaccinium elliottii; Lyonia lucida; Ilex coriacea; Clethra alnifolia; Cyrilla racemiflora; Acer rubrum var. trilobum [listed as A. trilobum]; Symplocos tinctoria; Serenoa repens; Toxicodendron radicans; Hamamelis virginiana; Smilax pumila; Gordonia lasianthus; Krigia sp.; Morella inodora; Magnolia virginiana; Magnolia grandiflora; Hypericum sp.; Euonymus americanus; Quercus nigra; Quercus hemisphaerica; Vaccinium arboreum; Aronia arbutifolia; Asimina parviflora; Clinopodium coccineum; Pieris phillyreifolia; Persea palustris; Ilex vomitoria; Chrysoma paucifloculosa; Quercus laevis; Quercus marilandica; Quercus minima; Pinus clausa; Chamaecyparis thyoides; Smilax spp.; Ceratiola ericoides; Conradina canescens; Conradina eximia ined. (new species); Cladonia sp.; Vaccinium sp.; Cartrema americana; Opuntia austrina; Gelsemium sempervirens; Pteridium aquilinum; Andropogon sp.; Quercus falcata; Licania michauxii; Pinus palustris; Lyonia lucida.
Comment: White-flowered form. Low-growing, evergreen, loosely branched sub-shrubs; 25-35 cm tall and wide with needle-like, aromatic foliage 0.5-1 cm long. Plants bear typical mint-like flowers that range in color from nearly white to dark lavender/purple from early to late March; sampled cuttings are mostly from a nearly white-flowering form. Part of a multicolored, probably large-flowered hybrid swarm at the intersection of Conradina canescens and C. eximia (glabrous form not yet described botanically) Additional notes: As anecdotal reference regarding the proposed name of this new taxon, Rick Lewandowski received an email from Ron Miller on August 25, 2020 stating, “Wouldn't be surprised if occasional Conradina eximia will be in bloom over here with all the recent rain. Dr. Loran Anderson has finally received DNA results. Eximia is a separate taxon from canescens and from the Apalachicola glabra.” Unfortunately, Dr. Anderson died later that same year and the work on this “new species” has not yet been completed..
Collector(s):