Rhexia salicifolia Kral & Bostick

Panhandle Meadow Beauty

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Panhandle Meadow Beauty is a native perennial in the Melastome family (Melastomataceae). It is known to occur in two south Alabama counties. Panhandle Meadow Beauty only occurs around the grassy margins of sinkhole ponds in full sun. It is a perennial with a brown tuber and thin, wide-spreading roots. The stems are 1-2 feet tall. Stems are light green in color and square in cross section with all four sides approximately the same size. The stems have glandular hairs and narrow wings on the angles. Leaves are opposite, linear, and have scattered glandular hairs. The leaves are “twisted” near the base so that the flat portion of the leave face out and not up. This condition does not occur in any other species of Rhexia in Alabama. Flowers are solitary and terminal. Each flower has four pink petals and bright yellow curved anthers. The fruit is urn shaped with the neck of the urn shorter than the round body. There are glandular hairs on the fruit. Panhandle Meadow Beauty is listed as an S1 species in Alabama (typically 5 or fewer occurrences, very few remaining individuals, acres, or miles of stream, or some factor of its biology making it especially vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G2 species globally (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences, or few remaining acres, or miles of stream) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors).--A. Diamond

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Native OBL (NWPL) S1 (State Rank) G2 (Global Rank)

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