''Agalinis purpurea'' (known by

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

s including purple false foxglove and purple gerardia) is an

annual Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook **Literary annual *Annual plant *Annual report *Annual giving *Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco *Annuals (band), a ...

forb A forb or phorb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in botany and in vegetation ecology especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically, these are eudicots without woo ...

native Native may refer to: People * '' Jus sanguinis'', nationality by blood * '' Jus soli'', nationality by location of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Nat ...

to the eastern United States and Canada, USDA, NRCS. 2014. The PLANTS Database

National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA. which produces purple flowers in late summer or early fall.

Description

''Agalinis purpurea'' is 10 to 120 centimeters tall. The stem is slender, with spreading branches. It has simple opposite leaves, which are 10 to 40 millimeters long, and only 0.5 to 2 millimeters wide. The flowers are racemose on the branches. They are borne on 1 to 8 millimeter long pedicles. Each flower is bilaterally symmetrical, with five 20 to 38 millimeter long petals fused into a corolla tube, and four stamens. The fruit is a round 4 to 6 millimeter long dry capsule that splits open when ripe.

Distribution and habitat

''Agalinis purpurea'' is widely distributed in the eastern United States, although local distribution may be spotty. It has been recorded in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. It has also been recorded in the Canadian province of Ontario. In

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, it grows in habitats such as marshes, swamps, interdune swales, and old fields. The presence of this species is dependent on appropriate

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

, and it may be eliminated from an area by development, changes in land use, or competition with

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

Ecology

Like other members of the genus ''

Agalinis ''Agalinis'' (false foxglove) is a genus of about 70 species in North, Central, and South America that until recently was aligned with members of the family Scrophulariaceae. As a result of numerous molecular phylogenetic studies based on vari ...

'', this species is

hemiparasitic A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

on a variety of hosts, particularly graminoids. ''Agalinis purpurea'' uses

haustoria In botany and mycology, a haustorium (plural haustoria) is a rootlike structure that grows into or around another structure to absorb water or nutrients. For example, in mistletoe or members of the broomrape family, the structure penetrates th ...

to connect its roots with those of its host plants, but it also has green tissues, and performs

photosynthesis Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...

Taxonomy

This species is a member of the genus ''

'', which was formerly placed in the family

Scrophulariaceae The Scrophulariaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the figwort family. The plants are annual and perennial herbs, as well as shrubs. Flowers have bilateral (zygomorphic) or rarely radial (actinomorphic) symmetry. The Scr ...

, but has more recently been placed in the family

Orobanchaceae Orobanchaceae, the broomrapes, is a family (biology), family of mostly parasitic plants of the order (biology), order Lamiales, with about 90 genus, genera and more than 2000 species. Many of these genera (e.g., ''Pedicularis'', ''Rhinanthus'', ...

, in keeping with the findings of the

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants (angiosperms) that reflects new knowledge about plant relationships disc ...

.Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2003. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 141:399-436., cited in Walter Fertig The University of Montana Herbarium Newsletter. (Spring 2011). University of Montana, Missoula, MT. http://herbarium.dbs.umt.edu

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q15339063 purpurea Flora of Western Canada Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Eastern Canada Flora of the Northeastern United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the North-Central United States Flora of the South-Central United States