Chelone glabra

White turtlehead
Flowers

Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Plantaginaceae
Genus: Chelone
Species: C. glabra
Binomial name
Chelone glabra
L.

Chelone glabra (white turtlehead) is a species of plant native to North America. Its classification at the family level has in the past been controversial,[1] but as a result of DNA sequence studies, it is now regarded as belonging to family Plantaginaceae (the plantain family).[2]

Description

Chelone glabra is a herbaceous plant found in wetlands and riparian forests [3] of eastern North America with opposite, simple leaves, on stout, upright stems. The flowers are white, borne in late summer and early fall. It has been used as a method of birth control by Abenaki people.[4]

Its native range extends from Georgia to Newfoundland and Labrador and from Mississippi to Manitoba.[5]

It is the primary plant on which the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly will lay its eggs (although the butterfly to some extent will use a few other species).[6][7]

C. glabra is also a foodplant for the sawflies Macrophya nigra (Norton) and Tenthredo grandis (Norton) (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), (Stamp, 1984).[8]

A flea beetle in the genus Dibolia (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) has also been shown to feed on C. glabra (Wilcox, 1979).[9]

Use as indicator of deer browse in riparian forests

Chelone glabra is a popular browse plant for deer, although certain other plants such as Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster), Symphyotrichum prenanthoides (crooked-stem aster), and Impatiens capensis (orange jewelweed) are even more preferred by deer. In measuring damage to plants as a way of finding out the level of deer browsing, it is more effective to use a collection of deer browse species rather than just one.[3]

References

  1. http://vnps.org/princewilliamwildflowersociety/changes-in-taxonomy-of-chelone-glabra-and-the-traditional-scrophulariaceae-figwort-family/
  2. http://www.amjbot.org/content/92/2/297.full
  3. 1 2 Williams, C (2000). "Use of turtlehead (Chelone glabra L.) and other herbaceous plants to assess intensity of white-tailed deer browsing on Allegheny Plateau riparian forests, USA" (PDF). Biological Conservation. 92 (2): 207. doi:10.1016/S0006-3207(99)00054-3.
  4. "Plants Native to the State of Maine".
  5. "Chelone glabra". PLANTS.
  6. M. Deane Bowers, Nancy E. Stamp and Sharon K. Collinge (April 1992). "Early Stage of Host Range Expansion by a Specialist Herbivore, Euphydryas Phaeton (Nymphalidae)". Ecology. Ecological Society of America. 73 (2): 526–536. doi:10.2307/1940758. JSTOR 1940758.
  7. Euphydryas phaeton (Drury, 1773), Butterflies and Moths of North America
  8. Stamp, N.E. (1984). Effect of defoliation by checkerspot caterpillars (Euphydryas phaeton) and sawfly larvae (Macrophya nigra and Tenthredo grandis) on their host plants (Chelone spp.). Oecologia 63:275–280.
  9. Wilcox, J.A. (1979). Leaf beetle host plants in northeastern North America. World Natural History Publications, Kinderhook, NY.

Further reading


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