Broom crowberry facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Broom crowberry |
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| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Corema
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| Species: |
conradii
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Corema conradii is a cool flowering plant often called the broom crowberry. It belongs to the heath family, just like blueberries and cranberries! This plant grows in eastern North America. You can find it in places like Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, the Shawangunk Mountains in New York, and the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. It has a "disjunct distribution," meaning it grows in separate, far-apart areas, not all in one continuous patch. Scientists think it might be a mix of two older plant types.
Contents
What Does It Look Like?
This plant is a small shrub, which is a woody plant smaller than a tree. It can grow up to about 60 centimeters (about 2 feet) tall. In warmer, southern areas, it might be shorter or grow in a cushion shape. It often grows in groups, covering the ground completely.
Leaves and Bark
The broom crowberry has gray or reddish-orange bark that looks like it's peeling. Its leaves are yellow-green and shaped like tiny needles. They are very small, only about 6 millimeters long and less than a millimeter wide. If you crush the leaves, they smell nice!
Flowers and Fruit
This plant is "dioecious," which means it has separate male and female plants. The male plants have flowers that make pollen, and the female plants have flowers that make seeds. The tiny flower parts, called sepals, are reddish or purplish. Flowers usually start to appear in March. After flowering, the female plants produce a small, gray fruit called a drupe. It's less than 2 millimeters wide.
Where Does It Grow?
The broom crowberry often grows on sandy soils near the coast. It likes open areas, especially those created by fires.
Plant Neighbors
In Maine, you might find it growing with other plants like Empetrum nigrum, Pinus rigida (pitch pine), and small oak trees. In Massachusetts, it often grows with pitch pine, Betula populifolia (gray birch), and Comptonia peregrina (sweetfern).
Important Habitats
It's a very common plant on Nantucket and Cape Cod, where it forms a special type of land called a heathland. These areas are open and often have sandy soil.
How Does It Survive Fires?
The broom crowberry is a "fire-adapted" plant. This means it's good at living in places where fires happen often, like pine barrens. Fires help clear out other plants, giving the broom crowberry space to grow.
Growing After a Fire
When a fire burns, it often kills the adult broom crowberry plants. But after the fire, many new seedlings (baby plants) sprout up from seeds. This is called "recruitment." For example, after a fire in New Jersey in 2001, many new broom crowberry seedlings appeared, even though none had been seen there for years before the fire. This shows how much it relies on fire to help its seeds grow.
Tough Conditions
This plant can also grow well in places that have been grazed by animals, burned, and have harsh weather. It can act as a "pioneer species," meaning it's one of the first plants to grow in newly cleared or disturbed soil.
Ant Helpers
The fruits of the broom crowberry are collected by a type of ant called Aphaenogaster rudis. These ants might help spread the plant's seeds to new places.
