Mohr's Barbara Buttons

Description:

Mohr's Barbara buttons is a perennial herb usually with branched stems obtaining a height of approximately 3 to 7 decimeters. The lanceolate to obovate leaves are alternate, lance-oblong shaped, firm-textured, and are 6 to 10 cm in length and nearly 2 cm in width. Larger and more numerous leaves are near the base of the stem and may be up to 20 cm in length with the leaves gradually reducing upwards towards the top of the plant. Each leaf has three parallel veins. Terminal flower heads develop from mid-May to June forming a cluster of 2 to 6 (rarely one) button-like flowers approximately 2.5 cm in width. The flowers are subtended by numerous bracts, which are sharply pointed and composed only of tubular disk flowers. The disk flowers are purplish-violet to white each subtended by a single, persistent, sharply pointed scale-like chaff (bract). From July to August fruit are produced as a 5-angled, 10-ribbed achene approximately 4 mm in length exhibiting a hairy resin-dotted surface. The achene is topped by a pappus of five, narrowly triangular, sharply pointed scales approximately 1 to 3 mm in length. The achene is positioned among the sharply pointed chaff which persists on the flower head. Surveys for this species should be conducted during its flowering period as the plants are less conspicuous during other parts of the year (Patrick et. al. 1995 and USFWS 2003).

Habitat:

Mohr's Barbara buttons typically occurs in seasonally wet, sandy clay soils in prairie-like meadows (Patrick et. al, 1995) along shale-bedded streams (USFWS 2003) and utility and highway rights-of-way (Author's personal observations of Floyd County, Georgia colonies), and in habitats with widely spaced trees known as “glades” when considerable bedrock is exposed, or “barrens” when thin soils predominate (Patrick et al. 1995). USFWS (2003) reports that "Several populations are located in swales extending onto roadside rights-of-way. The soils are sandy clays, which are alkaline, high in organic matter, and seasonally wet. Most currently known populations occur on soils of the Conasauga-Firestone Association. Plants occur in full sun or partial shade in a grass-sedge community. At one site, the endangered Alabama Leather Flower (Clematis socialis) occurs with this species. Another Federally endangered plant, the green pitcher plant (Sarracenia oreophila), co-exists with this species at a different location. A Federal candidate species, grassleaf yellow loosestrife (Lysimachia graminea) is an associate at several Alabama sites."

Range:

Mohr's Barbara buttons is found only in north central Alabama and in Floyd County, Georgia from approximately 50 very localized sites. There is an unsubstantiated, probably erroneous, report from Florida (NatureServe 2003). All but one of the currently known populations of this species are located in eastern Etowah County (four populations) and central Cherokee County (nine populations) in Alabama. One population is found in Bibb County, Alabama. The largest known populations are in Cherokee County. There are about 1,000 plants at two sites; six other sites support moderate-sized populations of 100 to 200 plants, or limited populations of 12 to 50 plants. Although this species was once known from three different physiographic regions in Alabama (Cahaba Valley, Warrior Basin, and Coosa Valley), all of the existing populations within Etowah or Cherokee County are located between one-half to 2 miles of each other. This plant was historically reported from Cullman and Walker Counties in Alabama and from Lookout Mountain (Walker County) in Georgia, but these populations are considered extirpated. Two populations in Cherokee County and one in Bibb County are also thought to be destroyed, as they have not been located in recent years (USFWS 2003). The species faces numerous threats from development such as road construction and vegetation management activities along rights-of-way, as well as competition from noxious weeds such as Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). Other threats include the conversion of its habitat to pastureland, cropland, and pine plantations, and the gradual encroachment of woody species into the open habitat in the absence of fire (NatureServe 2003). The plants on this page were photographed at a recently discovered Floyd County, Georgia location on a private timber company's land. The timber company currently manages and monitors the Mohr's Barbara buttons colonies on their property.