Flora of North America species comparison

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Macranthera flammea

flameflower
Habit Perennials or biennials monocarpic, blackening upon drying.
Stems

virgately branched distally, 4-angled, 8–35 dm.
Leaves

petiole winged, to 2 cm;

blade lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 8–15 x 2–6 cm, smaller distally, surfaces glabrate.
Racemes

8–36 cm.
Pedicels

deflexed-spreading proximally, strongly upcurved distally.
Flowers

calyx tube 2–4 mm, retrorsely puberulent, lobes 7.5–15 mm, longer than tube;

corolla 20–25 mm, exterior densely glandular-mealy, lobes 3–4.5 mm, shorter than tube, abaxial lobes reflexed-spreading, adaxial erect;

stamens long-exserted, filaments orange, 15–46 mm;

style long-exserted, 28–36 mm, glabrous.
Capsules

brown, ovoid, 9.5–13 mm, densely puberulent.
Seeds

2.5–3 mm, wings 2–5.
2n

= 26.

Macranthera flammea
Phenology Flowering Aug–Oct.
Habitat Periodically burned streamheads and ecotones, baygall ecotones, seepage slopes, margins of shrub-tree bogs, cypress-gum depressions.
Elevation 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Macranthera flammea is one of the more striking plants in the flora area due to its remarkable height (for an herb) and numerous, brilliant orange flowers; it is best able to compete with associated shrubs and trees by flowering prolifically following fire and attracting hummingbirds. There is precise coincidence in the flowering of this species and the arrival of ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) prior to their trans-Gulf migration to Central America (A. L. Pickens 1927).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 562.
Parent taxa Orobanchaceae > Macranthera
Synonyms Gerardia flammea
Name authority (W. Bartram) Pennell: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 40: 124. (1913)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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