''Macbridea alba'' is a rare species of flowering plant in the mint family known by the common name white birds-in-a-nest. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in the United States, where it is found in four counties in the

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...

.USFWS
''Macbridea alba''. Five-year Review.
March 2009. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat, and it is federally listed as a threatened species of the United States.''Macbridea alba''.

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in 1951, The Natu ...

. This plant grows in the counties of

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodie ...

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

and

Bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

in Florida. There are just under 10,000 individuals in total divided amongst several scattered populations. About 40% of the occurrences are within the Apalachicola National Forest. Several known occurrences have been extirpated. This is a perennial herb producing usually one stem measuring 30 to 40 centimeters tall.Godt, M. J. W., et al. (2003)
Allozyme diversity in ''Macbridea alba'' (Lamiaceae), an endemic Florida mint.
''Journal of Heredity'' 95:3 244-49. It is often coated in glandular hairs and it may have branches. The paired leaves are lance-shaped to spatula-shaped. They are glandular and may be sticky in texture. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a thyrse, which is a

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

that is divided into cymes. The inflorescence is filled with tightly packed pointed

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s between which bloom the flowers. Each flower has a double-lipped white corolla around 2.5 to 3 centimeters long. There may be pale purple markings in the flower's throat. The open flowers and rounded buds sitting on the cluster of green bracts resemble white birds and eggs in a nest, giving the plant its common name. Blooming occurs in May through July and the plant is likely pollinated by

bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

s (''Bombus'' spp.). This mint grows in pine

flatwoods Flatwoods, pineywoods, pine savannas and longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem are terms that refer to an ecological community in the southeastern coastal plain of North America. Flatwoods are an ecosystem maintained by wildfire or prescribed fire an ...

seeps A petroleum seep is a place where natural liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons escape to the earth's atmosphere and surface, normally under low pressure or flow. Seeps generally occur above either terrestrial or offshore petroleum accumulation stru ...

, wet

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

s, and the

ecotone An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and gras ...

s next to

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s and sandhills. It prefers grassy areas with wet, infertile soils, often sandy soils rich in

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

. This region, located in the Apalachicola River Basin, has been altered by human activity. Historically, part of the area was devoted to the

pulp industry Pulp may refer to: * Pulp (fruit), the inner flesh of fruit Engineering * Dissolving pulp, highly purified cellulose used in fibre and film manufacture * Pulp (paper), the fibrous material used to make paper * Molded pulp, a packaging material * ...

, but much less today.

Urban development Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

threatens the local habitat as residential areas are constructed and associated utilities such as roads are built and maintained; many occurrences of the plant are on roadsides and are vulnerable during this process. The flatwoods habitat depends on a

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

of periodic

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

s for its maintenance. Fire prevents the

ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less. Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...

of the flatwoods, keeping large woody vegetation from building up and shading out the herb layer of the understory. Now

fire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated a ...

is practiced, preventing the normal fire regime and leading to the degradation of the habitat, making it less hospitable to this and other herbs. Tracts which have not burned in many years have less of the mint, but it tends to become quite abundant in the years after fire sweeps through. Good management practices will involve maintenance of a proper fire regime.

References

External links

USDA Plants ProfileCenter for Plant Conservation
{{Taxonbar, from=Q14860993 Lamiaceae Endemic flora of Florida Taxa named by Alvan Wentworth Chapman