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Published In: Flora Telluriana 4: 47. 1838. (Fl. Tellur.) Name publication detailView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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1. Isotria medeoloides (Pursh) Raf. (small whorled pogonia)

Pl. 114 a, b; Map 467

Flowering stems 9–25 cm tall, green. Flowers with stalks 4–6 mm long. Sepals 12–20 mm long, only slightly longer than the petals, yellowish green to green, narrowly oblanceolate to oblong‑linear. Lateral petals 12–17 mm long, yellowish green, narrowly oblanceolate. Lip 10–15 mm long, obovate, the middle lobe broadly rounded, white with green veins, with a longitudinal, yellowish green crest that changes to bearded hairs toward the tip. Capsules with stalks 10–15 mm long. 2n=18. May–June.

Known only from a single, historical collection from Bollinger County (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Missouri). Precise habitat unknown; specimen label reads “wooded limestone hill.”

This rare species was listed as Endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service under the federal Endangered Species Act, but the discovery of several new populations in the northeastern United States caused its status to be revised to Threatened in 1994. Plants are apparently self‑pollinated and have a reduced rostellum that allows pollen to contact the stigma directly.

Efforts to rediscover this species in Missouri have been hampered by the lack of a precise habitat description on the label of Russell’s 1897 collection and the inability to pinpoint the site of the single occurrence near Glen Allen in Bollinger County. Unlike I. verticillata, plants of the small whorled pogonia usually are found singly, rather than in colonies. Elsewhere, the species occurs primarily on acidic substrates, in a variety of hardwood and coniferous forest types. At the single station in southern Illinois, plants grow on a relatively dry, thinly wooded slope above a sandstone bluff. Further searches for I. medeoloides may eventually result in its rediscovery in Missouri.

 
 


 

 
 
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