| Section 6 » Order Caryophyllales » Family Amaranthaceae |
Show/Hide Synonym
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| Froelichia floridana | = | Froelichia floridana var. floridana | Gleason and Cronquist (1991) | | | Froelichia floridana | = | Froelichia floridana var. floridana | Fernald (1950) | | | Froelichia floridana | = | Froelichia floridana var. floridana | Gleason (1952) | | | Froelichia floridana | = | Froelichia floridana var. floridana | Kartesz (1999) | | | Froelichia floridana | = | Froelichia floridana var. floridana | Townsend in Kubitzki, Rohwer, & Bittrich (1993). | | | Froelichia floridana | < | Froelichia floridana | Flora of North America (1993b, 1997, 2000, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2004b, 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c, 2007a, 2009, 2010) | | | Froelichia floridana | < | Froelichia floridana | Wunderlin & Hansen Flora of Florida (3) | | | Source: Weakley's Flora |
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| Author | (Nuttall) Moquin-Tandon | |
| Distribution | Primarily Sandhills and southern Coastal Plain; also Anson County in lower Piedmont. The gap in the range on the map will likely be filled in with additional collecting.
Coastal Plain, NC to southern FL, southeastern LA, eastern AR, and western TN. Disjunct to DE and MD, where likely adventive or introduced. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common, and locally abundant in the Sandhills; uncommon to locally common east to Sampson and Bladen counties, but rare near the coast. Can be a visually dominant forb in some abandoned sandy fields in the Sandhills. The editors suggest a State Rank of S4, instead of the NCNHP's S3?. | |
| Habitat | Dry to xeric sandy soil of roadsides, fallow fields, clearings, along railroads. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting June - October. | |
| Identification | Florida Cottonweed is easy to recognize, due to its erect, simple to sparsely branched stems (often to 4-6 feet tall) and spikes of whitish flowers and fruits. Leaves are rather few, lance-shaped, and occur mostly in the lower 1/3 of the stem. All parts of the plant, especially inflorescences, are generally covered with cottony, white to brownish hairs. Slender Cottonweed (F. gracilis) is similar, but is branched from the base and sprawls on the ground with ascending outer branches. Florida Cottonweed is a striking yet odd plant (almost grass-like), with the white finger-sized spikes topping a tall and wand-like stem, waving in the breeze in a fallow field, often by the hundreds or thousands. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None, though some references name varieties for it.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Common Cottonweed, Large Cottonweed, Plains Snakecotton, Prairie Cottonweed. There is no reasonably predominant common name. | |
| State Rank | S3? [S4] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
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