Plant of the day is: Buchnera americana or American bluehearts
Will I be able to find a few of these tomorrow out on the trail? Only time and the trail will tell.
Taxonomy, etc.: Buchnera is one of those neat genera in the Orobanchaceae family, noted for their parasitic tendencies. I've actually got some Aureolaria growing right now and it is, I believe, in dire need of a host plant. It has hung out with no growth, and it's first true leaves for almost 2 months now. Most of the members of the family use specialized roots called haustoria (haustorium singular) to penetrate the cell wall and draw nutrients from other plants. Fruits of this family tend to be dehiscent (fancy way of saying the fruit dries up and the seeds come out) with wind dispersed seeds. This type of dispersal can be particularly pesky when trying to collect seeds, as you either need to bag the developing seed ahead of time to catch the "shattering" seed, or collect just before the fruit begins to open. Dehiscence is really quite nifty and flagged by the spellchecker, so I spelled it three times, wrong according to the spellchecker every time. In a rare occurrence for plant of the day, Buchnera is ALSO a genus of Enterobacteriaceae which is an endosymbiont of aphids. Oh aphids, you suck. Anyways, about 138 species or so of Buchnera worldwide. B. obliqua is endemic to Arizona. Go Arizona. Oh and was recently in Scrophulariaceae but mainly moved cuz of the whole parasitic thing.
Description: Maybe a perennial maybe an annual? Conflicting reports... may vary depending on climate, being more annual farther north. This plant, as mentioned, is a hemiparasite. It is not fully parasitic, only partially. Leaves are opposite and stems have this neat purple coloration in the ...angle, crotch thingy? I need to learn a botanical term for that. Clearly. Leaves are sessile (lacking a petiole)...attached to the stem, and also lanceolate with 3 noticeable main veins coming from the base of the blade (every little bit helps in ID ...trust me). Other Buchnera species with overlapping distribution have 1 vein and rounded leaftips. The leaves also occur on the lower half of the stem with a bit of a gap or blank spot between the lower leaves the inflorescence. Flowers are clearly white to pink to purple, and quite showy. The color actually changes and darkens up quite rapidly when they are picked. I has a 5 lobed corolla with some pubescens on the lower part of corolla and calyx as well. Flowers occur from June through September. The stems only reach a height of about 60cm (2 feet).
Habitat: Prairies, glades, and even some wetter areas. I'll call it kind of an opportunistic plant, it does like plenty of full sun though. I think the ideal soil is a loamy moist soil with plenty of sun and water, but that is a lot of plants really. The distribution is annoying to say with words. Here is a map. In Missouri it is typically only found in the southern half of the state. It does make it all the way up into Canada where it is endangered :(. B. americana is the most widely distributed North American species in the genus, historically found in 24 states. Now listed as protected or no longer present in as many as 13 states. Keep it up humans! Most common in Missouri and Tennessee (don't screw it up!).
Propagation/parasitism: May parasitize (also spellchecker flagged...come one spellchecker!! killin me) white pine, red ash, eastern cottonwood, and white oak but according to Canada can mature without parasitic attachment (whew!). The seeds require light to germinate and may be banked in the soil for 2.5 to 3 years.
Ecology: Also a host plant for the common buckeye which was, I believe, recently featured in the Missouri Conservationist. The circle of life is pretty neat.
No plants, no butterflies.
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