#phemeranthus

[cedar-glade]

😳 What if we kissed on a bald covered in shortgrass prairie forbes near a barren with a decent population of  Opuntia macrorhiza(upright plains prickly pear) and Phemeranthus rugospermus(notice that the inflorescence is taller and less branched than that of the small flowered species, seeds are rough) in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma

Just kidding....

unless  👉 👈  😳

[cedar-glade]

Chert Barrens, Wildcat Glades, opposing side of shoal creek on the chert shelf.

It’s actually baffling to me how little chert is known to be removed from this site, I don’t think its clear why that is since it was considered extremely valuable for stone tool crafting. knapping chert to make specific tools was a common practice until the later section of the 1800′s by both Native Americans and European settlers. Flint stone and Chert stone have a specific conchoidal fracture path when striked and appear similar to other glass fracturing due to the high silica. 

Silica is also the reason why these shelves are aggressively angular instead of unercut to rounded flush from water movement, since silica is insoluble. 

As a heat insulator, chert tends to be harsh and very hot during summer, making this habitat xeric and very exposed in many parts. 

While Joplin MO. sits pretty far from the Texas and OK border we see many of the same plants land locked at this location and other near by barrens due to their spread during the early Holocene’s xerothermic interval in an era post glaciation where temps became warm and climate was dry. In a sense these can be considered refugium. 

Both  Phemeranthus parviflorus and  Phemeranthus calycinus overlap in the barrens here. 

Phemeranthus parviflorus (small flowered) and Phemeranthus calycinus (large flowered) are distinguishable more readily from flower size, otherwise you have to go off of stature. P. parviflorus is less tall and much less elongate as seen in the picture. As for P. calycinus 

Here is a multibranched elongate specimen photographed from https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/lf_rockpink.htm

The mossy fern looking lad is a semi-xeric spike moss: Selaginella rupestris, ledge spike moss.

 Now, I think the range maps for this are very wrong. Texas has plenty of these in their northern counties and bonap says they are not in the Ouachita and in the Wichita Mountains which is solid malarchy. I plan on looking for this lad in big barrens next time I go. 

Often surrounded by a layer of waterlogged biocrust stabilized sediment and Polytrichum commune is Opuntia humifusa

Ferns are often more xeric and exposure adapted than we give them credit for. Ebony spleenwort is obviously the most common fern just about anywhere; but, the calcareous Asplenium trichomanes subsp. quadrivalens  and the crack loving Myriopteris gracilis are always mind blowing to see in different habitats.

[cedar-glade]

Barrens, escarpments of Quanah granite, and ericaceous granite sand, Wichita MTN. 

Here we first see Opuntia phaeacantha, upright or tulip(red and yellow flower, more spines on new growth cholla, formerly with O. humifusa (low-lying eastern prickley pear, less spines/canthos, yellow flowers) in the O. compacta complex) 

The other commonplace thing is  Selaginella rupestris, Rock Spike Moss, formerly grouped with S. densa ,Rocky Mountain Rock Spike Moss.

And then there is the succulent leaves of a Phemeranthus spp.

Phemeranthus rugospermus (Rough Seed Flameflower)

Phemeranthus parviflorus (Small Flowered Flameflower) Photographed above))

and Phemeranthus calycinus (Large Flower’d Flameflower) 

 are all found in Oklahoma and specifically all three can be found in the Wichita mountains in sympatry and nowhere else in Oklahoma.

For me, I got lucky, because keying these can be bad news in places like the Ozarks where diversity is higher if the species is not in bloom. Luckily I caught this one in bloom. 

Phemeranthus rugospermus ( 6-8mm petals, which is small.)

Phemeranthus parviflorus (2-3mm petals- smaller.)

and Phemeranthus calycinus ( can be a whopping  2-2.5 cm!)

Currently speaking the mountain barrens and red dirt barrens/shortgrass of Oklahoma see overlap in the most common, P. parviflorus, where the acidic mountain barrens of the Ozarks, Ouachita, and the Wichita where some igneous features are exposed seem to grant P. calycinus the biggest population foot hold in the United States. P. calycinus seems to require these kinds of acidic igneous rock/sand barrens for the most part to really thrive. As for P. rugospermus, it’s state listed and seems to only be found in the Wichita section of Oklahoma despite being noted near the Ouachita in a neighboring state. 

P. rugospermus is rare in all of it’s range.

These plants are highly adapted to barren communities where they get little competition and utilize a succulent lifestyle to deal with the xeric habit.

[cedar-glade]

I’ve been attempting to ID this for a while now,

Froelichia gracilis

Slender Cotton Weed

The flowers are considerably chasmogamous and the species it’s self is dainty, Here we see Phemeranthus parviflorus growing next to it near by is one of the oldest blackjacks, Quercus marilandica,  I’ve seen in my entire life.  This specific population was on a large exposure of ironrich weathered sand above sandstone, which always seems to add diversity in some way. 

Photographed, Lake Hiwassee shortgrass prairie. OK