Meet Flyr’s Brickellia! 🌿

TAXA TUESDAY 🌿
w/ the Florida Native Plant Society

Meet the Flyr’s Brickellia!

Flyr’s Brickellia
Brickellia cordifolia
Family: Asteraceae

This state-endangered perennial is a favorite for butterflies and other pollinators!

It occurs in mesic pine and oak hammocks, in a few panhandle counties, Southern Georgia and Alabama, and Alachua County.

The large flower heads of Brickellia cordifolia have a distinctive fringed appearance due to the elongated styles. The rosy-pink, composite flower heads are discoid - meaning they are made up of only disc florets, lacking the ray florets that are often interpreted as petals.

Each disc florets consists of a tubular corolla (made up of five fused petals), and five fused stamens which form a cylinder of anthers that the style pushes up through.

At the base of each disc floret is the pappus, an appendage attached to the ovary (where the seed forms) that aid in seed dispersal. In this case they are fringed and hair-like to aid in wind dispersal, but pappus appendages can come in many forms, depending on the type of dispersal. Some are barbed to be easily caught and carried on the fur of animals.

Discoid Flower Head:
The composite flower head (capitulum) only includes disc florets.No ray florets (what many assume are petals on aster flowers) are present.

Pappus:
Appendages at the base of the floret, attached to the ovary (where the seed forms) that aid in seed dispersal. In this case they are fringed and hair-like to aid in wind dispersal.

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Video & description by Lilly Anderson-Messec, FNPS Director of North Florida Programs

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