Search / Plant Profile / Hartwrightia floridana

Plant Profile

Florida Hartwrightia (Hartwrightia floridana)

Hartwrightia floridana

CREATIVECOMMONS Hugh Nourse

Photo Credit:

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Asteraceae
State: FL, GA
Nature Serve ID: 130534
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 08/26/2021

Description:

Hartwrightia floridana A. Grey ex S. Watson (Asteraceae) is a perennial wildflower found in open wet habitats in peninsular Florida from Nassau to Highlands County and in south Georgia. Hartwrightia is listed as state-threatened in Florida, where populations are in danger of extinction from habitat loss, fire suppression, and the draining and ditching of its wet habitats that include wet flatwoods, seepage slopes, depression wetlands, and wet prairies. The plant appears in the spring as a basal rosette of oblanceolate leaves (3-10 inches long) covered in sticky glands. The tall reproductive stems (3-4 feet tall) emerge in the spring and summer, and the purple disk flowers are born atop branched corymb inflorescences in late summer. All parts of this plant are covered in sticky glands, including the achene fruits that mature in the fall.

Where is Florida Hartwrightia (Hartwrightia floridana) located in the wild?

States & Provinces:

Florida Hartwrightia can be found in Florida, Georgia

Which CPC Partners conserve Florida Hartwrightia (Hartwrightia floridana)?

Bok Tower Gardens

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 08/26/21

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Tina Stanley

05/11/2023

According to a March 2023 extract of the Florida Plant Rescue Database, Bok Tower Gardens holds 1 accessions of Hartwrightia floridana totalling approximately 15057 seeds.

Cheryl Peterson

12/07/2021

Hartwrightia floridana A. Grey ex S. Watson (Asteraceae) is a perennial wildflower found in open wet habitats in peninsular Florida from Nassau to Highlands County and in south Georgia. Hartwrightia is listed as state-threatened in Florida, where populations are in danger of extinction from habitat loss, fire suppression, and the draining and ditching of its wet habitats that include wet flatwoods, seepage slopes, depression wetlands, and wet prairies. The plant appears in the spring as a basal rosette of oblanceolate leaves (3-10 inches long) covered in sticky glands. The tall reproductive stems (3-4 feet tall) emerge in the spring and summer, and the purple disk flowers are born atop branched corymb inflorescences in late summer. All parts of this plant are covered in sticky glands, including the achene fruits that mature in the fall.

For the CPC seed initiative project, H. floridana seeds were collected from the southernmost population in its range located in Highlands County, Florida. This protected population occurs in a cutthroat grass seepage slope complex on state-owned lands and is managed with prescribed fire by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. This habitat type is a unique plant community found almost exclusively in Polk and Highlands Counties in Florida. This open wet longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) community is dominated by a monoculture of cutthroat grass (Coleataenia abscissa), intermixed with a diversity of herbs, cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), and ericaceous woody species. Frequent fire helps maintain the health and structure of this rare plant community and the persistence of the H. floridana population.

Center for Plant Conservation

08/26/2021

Bok Tower Gardens plans to make a conservation seed collection of this species in 2021 as part of CPC’s inaugural season of the Florida Plant Rescue seed collections initiative.