Finding the Wicky

Field Notes: Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge, June 3, 2019

This is another day in which Peg and I have been volunteering at the refuge welcome desk. During a break I hiked the entrance road out to the highway. The 1.4-mile round trip offers the opportunity to engage in wildlife viewing, and I record any new observations and post them on the iNaturalist database to help build a growing list of refuge biota.

This morning I observed some plants not previously reported from the refuge. Not far from the main building I noticed a blossoming yucca, later tentatively identified it as a weak-leaf yucca (Yucca flaccida). Two kinds of yuccas might occur here, and I will have to wait for review by an expert before I am sure about this identification. Then I saw several plants with large white blossoms and purplish centers. I thought they were hibiscuses but couldn’t get a good photo. Next, I photographed an engaging little plant I later identified as a marsh pink (Sabatia stellaris). Moving on, not far from the trail I spotted two of the big-blossomed plants I was unable to photograph earlier. Scrambling through bushes and getting snagged by brambles, I was rewarded by an excellent photo of the plants later identified as pineland hibiscus (Hibiscus aculeatus).

 

Marsh pink (Sabatia stellaris), upper image, and pineland hibiscus (Hisbiscus aculeatus), lower image. Both are common wildflowers of pine flatwoods.

 Continuing along the trail, I noticed a tiny blossoming shrub. Using the camera in my iPhone, which is good at close-ups, and bending toward a cluster of blossoms near the ground, I took a couple of shots. Back indoors at the refuge’s reception area and out of the bright sunlight, I got a first look at my photos. The ones made of that last plant provided a hint of recognition. “I know that plant,” was my first thought. And “What is it doing here?” was my second.

 

The tiny shrub first observed on June 3, 2019 on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge's Tram Ridge Trail. The cluster of flowers is less than knee high (about 20 cm) above the ground, and each blossom is less than a half inch (1 cm) across.

Putting a jumble of thoughts together it dawned on me that this little shrub was another new species for the refuge list. The blossoms were distinctive and familiar, and ‘mountain laurel’ immediately came to mind. Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is a dramatic shrub I would expect to see on Appalachian mountainsides. The flowers of this new plant looked like mountain laurel, but it would be far out of place in our pine flatwoods. Nevertheless, the cup-like pale pink blossoms unmistakably said ‘mountain laurel’…or so I thought.

 

Stock image of the flowers of mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), a shrub commonly associated with Appalachian mountainsides.

Later consulting my guidebooks, I found that I was almost right. I easily identified the new little plant as Kalmia hirsuta, not the same species as mountain laurel, but in the same genus and in that sense a sibling.  As with many plants, this new one has multiple common names none of which is widely accepted as “correct.” It is sometimes called ‘Wicky,’ ‘Hairy Wicky,’ ‘Hairy Laurel,’ or ‘Sandhill Laurel.’ I regarded the wicky as the prize among the new plants I saw that day. Only later did it dawn on me that its distinctive flowers are tiny, and only a fraction of the size of those of mountain laurel. If the close-up hadn’t made them seem much larger in the photo than in life, I might not have made the connection. Regardless, finding a close relative of the familiar mountain laurel in pine flatwoods in the Florida peninsula was a surprise.

 

Flowers of the wicky, Kalmia hirsuta. Compare them with those of mountain laurel in the previous image. The close resemblance may be easy to miss because flowers of the wicky are many times smaller than those of mountain laurel and the low-growing plant tends to be much less conspicuous.

Another connection made discovery of the wicky intriguing. I was engaged in some informal research concerning the resemblance of landscapes of the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York State to those of the far north. Northern boreal (i.e. spruce-fir) forests circle the globe at high latitudes, and extend into parts of northeastern North America in only a few places, including the Adirondacks Two kinds of laurels may offer clues. Sheep laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) also known as ‘sheep kill’ because its foliage is poisonous to livestock) occurs in boggy areas in northeastern North America. Bog laurel (Kalmia polifolia) is a true northern species that occurs across Canada and a few northernmost parts of the United States and is regarded as an indicator of boreal forests.

After discovering the wicky, I wondered what southern pine flatwoods, Appalachian mountainsides, northeastern bogs, and boreal forests have in common that makes them attractive to this group of relatives in the genus Kalmia. The wicky and bog laurel seemed almost like bookends, anchoring the southern and northern North American limits of the laurel family.

The laurels are members of a large family of shrubs and small trees known as heaths (Family Ericaceae) that includes blueberries, huckleberries, staggerbushes, rhododendrons, azaleas, and others. Some of these are common across broad swatches of the east, others are restricted to certain habitats. In the north, at least, they are often found in boggy places.

So, how to explain the varied climates and landscapes that are attractive to the laurels and their relatives?  It didn’t take much research to dig up some clues. Heaths, including the species of Kalmia that drew my immediate attention are known to specialize in soils poor in nutrients. They have symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi in their roots which help to extract nutrients from poor soils and make them available to the plants which would otherwise be unable to absorb them. Nutrients in the soil are scarce in areas of the far north and in bogs where it is too cold or too wet, and slow to decompose dead materials become tied up as peat. They are also acidic, resulting in double jeopardy because acid soils make it difficult for plants to take up any free nutrients that might be present. Appalachian mountainsides may similarly be acidic and poor in nutrients owing to thin soils leached of nutrients by flowing water. Southern pine flatwoods and sand hills often have acidic soils and abundant rainfall may leach nutrients from them.

Before my discovery of the wicky deep in the south, I remained under the impression that heaths are primarily specialists of bogs and northern landscapes. I was aware that blueberries, staggerbushes, and other heaths are common in Florida flatwoods, sandhills, and scrub, but only after discovery of the wicky did it dawn on me that these plants are no less at home in these southern landscapes than they are in northern bogs. Their importance in flatwoods was underlined a week after discovery the wicky when I found one more interesting heath. Tarflower (Bejaria racemosa) is yet another common shrub of flatwoods. Named for its showy sticky flowers that trap insects, it has been speculated that the remains of ensnared insects fall to the ground and help the plants by releasing nutrients from their decomposing remains.

So, boreal forests, peat bogs, Appalachian mountainsides, and pine flatwoods are separated by latitude and topography and seem to have little in common. Nevertheless, they share challenging soils in which the Kalmias and other heaths, including blueberries, huckleberries, tarflower, and others can thrive.