# 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.

- **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.

## About

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.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/a9d11cc7-f96d-433a-9a31-33af94b526f2
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/170288
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warea_amplexifolia
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/240934962/medium.jpeg (Brandon Corder, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.