Clinopodium ashei (Weath.) Small

Global Range: Occurs in Highlands, Polk, Marion, Volusia counties, Florida; also reported from Lake and Orange counties and in one county in Georgia.

Comments: Dry pinelands and sand pine scrub in canopy openings and disturbed areas.

Calamintha ashei, a perennial shrub, is most commonly found in openings in sand pine scrub, but also can be found in disturbed areas such as fire lanes, road shoulders, and abandoned fields. It flowers intermittently from January to April, and more rarely until autumn (Wunderlin 1982, Kral 1983, Menges and Salzman 1992).

Plants are killed by fire, and presumably are also unable to resprout if aboveground vegetation is killed during any other type of disturbance. Seeds have no obvious dispersal mechanism, and drop beneath the parent plants. Although plants flower and produce seeds yearly, seedlings are not present in undisturbed communities. Seedlings, however, can be found in recently disturbed areas, and usually appear during the second winter after a fire (Carrington unpubl. data, Race pers. communication), presumably after germinating from a soil seed bank. Dormancy mechanisms and germination requirements for seeds are unknown; however, most seed germination appears to occur in microsites with little or no litter.

Although plants can be found in long-undisturbed communities with relatively closed canopies, flowering is usually sparse, and the plants are probably in decline. Kral (1983) suggested that the plants are "shaded out" as canopies close. He also suggested that timber management practices such as bulldozing, root raking, thinning the overstory, or cutting the overstory would benefit populations, but bedding or roller chopping would be detrimental.

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable