False Mermaid - a Rare Vascular Plant

False Mermaid  (Floerkea proserpinacoides) 

Of note:

        "A flower of F. proserpinacoides is the logo for the Flora of North America project."

Find out more about this species at DiscoverLife

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Willdenow

New England Plant Conservation Program

Floerkea proserpinacoides

False Mermaid-weed

Conservation and Research Plan for New England

Floerkea proserpinacoides Willdenow, false mermaid-weed, is an herbaceous annual

and the only member of the Limnanthaceae in New England. The species has a disjunct but widespread range throughout North America, with eastern and western segregates separated by the Great Plains. In the east, it ranges from Nova Scotia south to Louisiana and west to Minnesota and Missouri. In the west, it ranges from British Columbia to California, east to Utah and Colorado. Although regarded as Globally Secure (G5), national ranks of N? in Canada and the United States indicate some uncertainly about its true conservation status in North America. It is listed as rare (S1 or S2) in 20% of the states and provinces in which it occurs. Floerkea is known from only 11 sites total in New England: three historic sites in Vermont (where it is ranked SH), one historic population in Massachusetts (where it is ranked SX), and four extant and three historic localities in Connecticut (where it is ranked S1, Endangered). The Flora Conservanda: New England ranks it as a Division 2 (Regionally Rare) taxon.  

Read more..........http://www.newfs.org/docs/pdf/floerkeaproserpinacoides.pdf

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American Journal of Botany. 2001;88:594-607.)
© 2001 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of Floerkea proserpinacoides (Limnanthaceae), an annual plant of the deciduous forest of eastern North America

Gilles Houle ^2,3,4, Margaret F. McKenna ^2,3 and Line Lapointe ²

²Département de biologie and ³Centre d'études nordiques, Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada G1K 7P4

...........Here, we report the results of a 4-yr study on the spatio-temporal dynamics of natural populations of the rare, annual Floerkea proserpinacoides Willd. (Limnanthaceae), in Québec (Canada). ......Baskin, Baskin, and McCann (1988) and Houle, McKenna, and Lapointe (1998) showed that Floerkea seed germination occurs during the early part of the winter, after a period of warm and, then, of cold stratification. They showed that very few seeds remain dormant after such a treatment. Consequently, the maintenance of a long-lived seed bank seems unlikely for the species, a somewhat uncommon characteristic for an annual plant and one that may place the populations at a high risk of local extinction.........

Read more.......American Journal of Botany