Ceratiola

Ceratiola
Growing in scrub on the Lake Wales Ridge
Apparently Secure
Apparently Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Subfamily: Ericoideae
Tribe: Empetreae
Genus: Ceratiola
Michx.
Species:
C. ericoides
Binomial name
Ceratiola ericoides
Michx.
Synonyms
  • Ceratiola falcatula Gand.
  • Empetrum aciculare Bertol.

Ceratiola is a genus of flowering plants with a single species, Ceratiola ericoides, a shrub endemic to the Southeastern United States.

Names

C. ericoides is commonly known as Florida rosemary, sand heath, scrub rosemary, or sandhill rosemary.

Description

Florida rosemary can grow to 1.8 metres (6 ft) tall. It has a rounded shrub form with dense branching. Its dark green leaves are needle-like, measuring eight to twelve mm long and one mm wide, and smell like the herb rosemary. The small flowers are yellow to brown. The green or yellow fruit is 3 millimetres (1⁄8 in) in diameter and is a juicy drupe containing two seeds.

Reproduction

Fruit

The Florida rosemary is dioecious and wind pollinated. Flowers are in the leaf axils on the previous year's growth, blooming from September through October. Fruits ripen in January through April. Flowers and fruit may remain on the plant year-round. Plants do not produce seed until they are 10 to 15 years old. Seed production per plant increases until age 20 to 30 years. Seed production begins to fall off in plants more than 35 years old.

Florida rosemary plants release a chemical called ceratiolin into the soil, which breaks down into hydrocinnamic acid, which in turn inhibits the growth of other plants, and of rosemary seeds (a process called allelopathy). Decomposition by microbiota, fire, and other disturbances to the soil break down the hydrocinnamic acid, allowing other plants to grow, and rosemary seeds to sprout.

Taxonomy

Ceratiola ericoides is the sole species in the genus Ceratiola. It was formerly included in the plant family Empetraceae, which since 2002 has been reclassified as the tribe Empetreae in the Ericoideae subfamily of the Ericaceae family.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to subtropical scrub and dry sandy habitats on the Atlantic Coastal Plain in the southeastern United States, including Georgia and South Carolina, throughout Florida, and in coastal counties of Alabama and Mississippi. It commonly occurs in Florida scrubs together with sand pine and evergreen scrub oaks.

Ecology

Close-up view

The fruit and seeds are consumed primarily by the Florida harvester ant, the oldfield mouse, the eastern towhee, and the Florida scrub jay. The seeds pass through avian digestive tracts unharmed, but dissolve if eaten by ants and mice. Seeds in soil lose viability in less than 10 years.

Florida scrub communities typically experience fires at 15- to 100-year intervals, which kill all plants, including rosemary. If a scrub patch burns less than ten years after a previous fire, there will not be seeds available in the soil to sprout into new rosemary plants. Johnson suggests that the falloff in seed production after a plant passes 35 years in age indicates that fires usually occur no more than 40 years after a previous fire, so that there is no selective pressure to continue producing large seed crops past 40 years.

Notes

  1. ↑ The age of Florida rosemary plants may be estimated by counting branching nodes on main stems, as branching normally occurs once a year. Node count correlates closely to ring count in the base stem. On older plants, older branches may die, or droop down to the ground, establishing roots at the contact point, so that nodes on the new growth are not matched by growth rings in the original stem, making it difficult to determine the age of such plants.

References

  1. ↑ "NatureServe Explorer 2.0".
  2. 1 2 3 "Ceratiola ericoides". Alabama Plant Atlas. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  3. 1 2 Johnson 1982, p. 170.
  4. ↑ NRCS. "Ceratiola ericoides". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  5. ↑ "Scrub rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides)". The Virtual UCF (University of Central Florida) Arboretum. May 16, 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
  6. ↑ "December Native Plant of the Month: Sandhill rosemary". State Botanical Garden of Georgia. December 11, 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  7. ↑ Miller, Debbie; Thetford, Mark (October 4, 2018). "Florida rosemany, Ceratiola ericoides". IFAS Extension. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  8. ↑ Gibson & Menges 1994, p. 338.
  9. ↑ Schmidt 2007, Study species.
  10. ↑ Johnson 1982, pp. 171–172.
  11. ↑ Johnson 1982, pp. 170–172.
  12. ↑ Richardson & Hall 2004, p. 12.
  13. ↑ Kron et al. 2002, pp. 336–337.
  14. ↑ "Species: Ceratiola ericoides". Fire Effects Information System. United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  15. ↑ Myers 1990, p. 151.
  16. ↑ Johnson 1982, p. 172.
  17. ↑ Menges & Hawkes 1998, pp. 936–937.
  18. ↑ Myers 1990, pp. 167–168.
  19. ↑ Johnson 1982, p. 173.

Sources