Mohr's Barbara's buttons facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Marshallia mohriiMohr's Barbara's buttons |
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M. mohrii
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| Marshallia mohrii Beadle & F.E.Boynton
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Mohr's Barbara's buttons (scientific name: Marshallia mohrii) is a special type of plant. It's a perennial herb, which means it's a plant that lives for more than two years and doesn't have a woody stem. This plant is endemic, meaning it's found only in a specific area. For Mohr's Barbara's buttons, that area is the Southeastern United States. You can find it in parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.
The plant was first discovered in 1882 by a scientist named Dr. Charles Mohr. That's why it's named after him! Since 1988, Mohr's Barbara's buttons has been listed as a threatened species on the Endangered Species List. This means it's at risk of disappearing if we don't protect it.
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What Does Mohr's Barbara's Buttons Look Like?
Mohr's Barbara's buttons usually grows to be about 1 to 2.5 feet (30 to 76 cm) tall. Its flowers are shaped like tubes and are about 2.5 cm wide. These flowers often grow in groups of 2 to 6.
The flowers can be white, light pink, or even a soft lavender color. The plant's leaves are long and narrow, like a spearhead, or oval-shaped. They are usually 6 to 10 cm long and about 2 cm wide. Each leaf has three veins running side by side. The leaves are bigger and there are more of them closer to the bottom of the plant's stem.
This plant typically blooms, or flowers, from mid-May through June. After the flowers, it produces fruit in July and August. The fruit is a small, dry seed called an achene. It's about 4 mm long, has five sides, and ten ridges. The surface of the fruit is a bit hairy and has tiny resin dots. On top of the fruit, there's a crown of five small, pointed scales. These scales are 1 to 3 mm long. You can find these fruits among the sharp, pointed bracts (small leaf-like structures) on the flower head.
Where Does Mohr's Barbara's Buttons Live? (Habitat)
Mohr's Barbara's buttons needs a very specific home to grow well. It likes wet, sandy clay soils that are alkaline (meaning they have a high pH). The soil also needs to have a lot of organic matter, like decaying plants. Most of these plants are found in areas with a specific type of soil called the Conasauga-Firestone Association.
You can often find this plant along streams that have shale rock beds. It especially likes areas in forests that are seasonally moist and open, or in low, wet areas called swales. Sometimes, it even grows along the sides of roads. Mohr's Barbara's buttons can grow in full sunlight or in partial shade. It often grows alongside grasses and sedges.
Interestingly, two other endangered species need the same kind of habitat as Mohr's Barbara's buttons. These are the Alabama Leather-Flower and the Green Pitcher Plant. They are both also endangered and live in these special, limited habitats.
Protecting Mohr's Barbara's Buttons (Conservation)
What Harms Mohr's Barbara's Buttons? (Threats)
The biggest problem for Mohr's Barbara's buttons is losing its habitat. This happens when people build new homes, when roads are made bigger, or when trash is dumped. Sometimes, farming can also cause habitat loss, but this is less common because the plant's preferred soil isn't great for most crops.
Even efforts to protect forests can sometimes harm this plant. For example, stopping wildfires in pine and oak forests can be a problem. While the plant needs these mature forests, it also needs open, sunny spots. Without occasional fires, these open areas can become overgrown with other plants and trees, blocking the sunlight Mohr's Barbara's buttons needs. So, too much protection can sometimes be a problem too!
Another risk for many plants is habitat fragmentation. This happens when a plant's living area gets broken up into smaller, separate pieces. When populations are isolated, plants from different groups can't mix. This can lead to a decrease in genetic variation over time. If there's not enough genetic variety, a species can become weaker and less able to survive changes in its environment. Luckily, for Mohr's Barbara's buttons, this isn't a big problem. It actually has more genetic variety than many other plants in its area, and the variety within its own groups is strong.
How Can We Protect Mohr's Barbara's Buttons? (Protection Methods)
Many people and groups are working together to protect Mohr's Barbara's buttons. The special calcareous glades (grassy areas with lime-rich soil) that this plant needs used to be common. Now, most of these areas are on private land, not on land protected by the government. This means that landowners are very important in helping to save this plant. Government groups and private organizations need to work with these landowners to make sure the plant's habitat is safe.
Government groups also play a key role. Since road building and city growth destroy habitats, it's important to carefully check land before building or developing it. Even if land is safe from construction, it needs protection from human activities like trash disposal and too much grazing by animals. These things can pollute and harm the plant's critical habitat.
The Nature Conservancy, a private organization, has bought several areas with these special glades and prairies. They do this to help Mohr's Barbara's buttons and other endangered species that live there. They also work with private landowners to protect areas on their land. By working together, private citizens and public groups can help Mohr's Barbara's buttons and other endangered species survive for the future.
Sometimes, populations of Mohr's Barbara's buttons grow in road ditches. It's important to check these ditches before mowing or construction. Simply not mowing a small area of roadside won't make the area look bad, but it can protect valuable plants.
Why Protect This Plant?
Mohr's Barbara's buttons is a unique wildflower found only in the United States. Protecting its habitat doesn't mean setting aside huge, expensive pieces of land. The land it lives on is often not very valuable for other uses, like farming.
Since Mohr's Barbara's buttons is a plant, it can't just pick up and move to a safer place if its home is destroyed. This makes it, like most plants, very vulnerable to losing its population if its habitat is harmed. That's why people need to protect the environments these plants need to live. Because Mohr's Barbara's buttons has a very specific and limited habitat, it's vital to protect these areas. These habitats are also important for several other threatened and endangered species, so protecting one helps many!
