''Liatris provincialis'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

known by the common names Godfrey's blazing star and Godfrey's gayflower. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in the United States, where it is limited to Wakulla and Franklin Counties in the

Panhandle A salient, panhandle, or bootheel is an elongated protrusion of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state. While similar to a peninsula in shape, a salient is most often not surrounded by water on three sides. Ins ...

.''Liatris provincialis''.
The Nature Conservancy.''Liatris provincialis''.
Center for Plant Conservation. This perennial herb grows from a

corm Corm, bulbo-tuber, or bulbotuber is a short, vertical, swollen, underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ that some plants use to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat (perennation). The word ''c ...

and reaches up to 90 centimeters tall. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped and up to 15 centimeters long near the base of the stem, becoming much smaller and narrower higher up the stem. The

flower heads A pseudanthium (; : pseudanthia) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers ...

are arranged in a dense, spikelike array. The head is cylindrical and about a centimeter long. It is held at a right angle to the stem and is attached to it, without a stalk. It contains three or four purple disc florets and no ray florets. The flowers bloom in August and September, sometimes into October. This plant grows in coastal habitats, generally in scrub and

sandhill A sandhill is a type of ecological community or xeric wildfire-maintained ecosystem. It is not the same as a sand dune. It features very short fire return intervals, one to five years. Without fire, sandhills undergo ecological succession and b ...

s. The habitat is prone to disturbance, and requires it to maintain open space. Without disturbance, which often comes in the form of

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...

, the

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

s overgrow, closing the woods and eliminating open space. When this overgrowth occurs, the plant only grows in artificially maintained open spaces, such as

firebreak A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebre ...

s. There are 54 known populations of this plant, several of which are within St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Some populations have occurred in

clear-cut Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of for ...

areas in privately owned stands of timber. This species is threatened by the loss of its habitat to intensive coastal development and the degradation of its habitat by the loss of natural regimes of disturbance, by

fire suppression Fire suppression may refer to: * Firefighting * Fire suppression systems * Wildfire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the availabl ...

, for example.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6540314 provincialis Endemic flora of Florida