Listera australis
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Wiki Commons, GNU |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Listera australis |
| Common name: | Southern twayblade |
| Group: | monocot |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Growth type: | forb/herb |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | 1.5 - 3 dm |
| Foliage: | 2 opposite leaves, mid-stem |
| Flower: | reddish or greenish-purple, in a terminal raceme, lip 10 mm, deeply cleft into linear setaceous porrect lobes |
| Flowering time: | April-early May; seed capsules dehisced and broken up by end of May |
| Habitat: | Shaded bogs and wet woods, mainly on the coastal plain; sphagnous thickets |
| Range in New Jersey: | Middle and Pine Barrens district |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | S2, listed Pinelands |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc. | USDA
lists as a facultative wetland species. Usually occurs in wetlands
(estimated probability 67%-99%), but occasionally found in non-wetlands. This plant may be somewhat more common than once thought; the difficulty in finding this plant may be due more to its size and coloration and flowering time. Stone notes: "In 1818 Barton states that the plant is 'very rare in the dark swampy wood bordering a road leading from Kaighn's Point to the Woodbury road'...Just how many stations were known to the older botanists I cannot say, but they all seem to have been in the immediate vicinity of Camden, and all seem to have been covered by the encroachment of the city and adjoining towns. It was therefore, a matter of no small interest when Mr. Geo. W. Bassett, on June 1, 1908, found a specimen of Listera in a cedar swamp on Alberson's branch...an entirely new locality. Possibly further search in cedar swamps will result in its discovery elsewhere." (376) |