Florida pinkroot

Coelostylis loganioides Torrey & A. Gray ex Endlicher & Fenzl, Nov. Stirp. Dec. 5: 33. 1839

Herbs perennial, 7.5–27 cm; rhizomes slender. Stems 1–3, sparsely branched. Cauline leaves: proximals 2–7 pairs per stem, attenuate-petiolate, blade ovate, lanceolate, elliptic, or rhombic, (1.4–)3–6.5 × (0.5–)1–1.7(–2.2) cm, base nar­rowly cuneate; distals sometimes pseudowhorled. Cymes 2-flowered, subsessile. Flowers: calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, 3–5 mm; corolla white, suffused with pink or yellow and with 2 pale lavender lines on each lobe out­side, white inside, funnelform, (7–)10–17 mm, lobes spread­ing at anthesis. Capsules 2–3 × 4–5 mm. Seeds 1–2 mm.

Flowering (Apr–)May(–Jul). Wet woodlands, hydric hammocks, floodplain swamps, limestone-based soils; of conservation concern; 0–20 m; Fla.

Morphologically, Spigelia loganioides is nearly iden­tical to S. texana of eastern Texas, from which it can be distinguished by its slightly longer (10–17 versus 8–11 mm) corollas and by its inconsistent production of a pseudowhorl of four leaves below the inflorescence (the pseudowhorl is present in about 50% of the specimens examined). Specimens from one possibly extirpated population (Ocala, Marion County), including the type specimen, differ strongly from S. texana in having rel­atively small, mostly broadly ovate, obtuse to acute, strictly oppo­site leaves and in being relatively short in stature (see J. Henrickson 1996, for illustration). In a molecular phylogenetic analysis including multiple pop­ulations of S. hedyotidea, S. loganioides, and S. texana (K. R. Gould and R. K. Jansen 1999), S. loganioides was sister to the other two species combined and is therefore recognized as a distinct species from S. texana.

Spigelia loganioides is endemic in Levy, Marion, Pasco, Sumter, and Volusia counties.