Wide-leaf warea
Warea amplexifolia
Its seeds can remain dormant in the sand for years, waiting for the heat of a wildfire to trigger germination and clear the canopy.
- Scientific name
- Warea amplexifolia
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Brassicales › Brassicaceae › Warea
- IUCN Red List status
- Endangered
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Xeric sandhills, high pine, and longleaf pine-turkey oak woodlands.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (photosynthesis via sunlight, drawing water and nutrients from sandy soil)
- Range
- Central Florida, USA, Lake County, Florida, Polk County, Florida
- Size
- Up to 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall with clasping, wide leaves
- Lifespan
- Annual (less than 1 year, germinating in winter and dying after seeding in autumn)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat loss from urban development, fire suppression (requires fire to clear competing canopy), and invasive species.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. Wide-leaf warea is completely non-toxic and poses no danger to humans. However, because it is an endangered species growing in fragile sandhill ecosystems, do not step on, touch, or harvest the plant. Maintain a safe viewing distance of 3 to 5 feet to avoid compressing the soil around its delicate root system.
Warea amplexifolia is a rare species of flowering plant in the mustard family known by the common names wideleaf pinelandcress , wide-leaf warea , and clasping warea . It is endemic to Florida in the United States, where it is limited to a few counties in the central part of the peninsula. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
Photo: Brandon Corder, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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