Agalinis heterophylla (Nutt.) Small

Prairie False Foxglove

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Prairie False Foxglove is a native herbaceous annual in the Broomrape family (Orobanchaceae). It is native to the Black Belt region of central Alabama. Prairie False Foxglove occurs in prairies, in swales in grasslands, in cedar glades, on chalk outcrops, and in roadside ditches. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are erect, branched, green or purple in color, glabrous, stiff, with 3-6 ridges. Leaves are opposite, sessile, elliptic to oblanceolate in outline (the lower leaves 3-lobed but absent at flowering time), minutely pubescent on the upper surface, and entire. The leaves are often purplish in color. Flowers are produced in open panicles of leafy spike-like racemes. Each flower is subtended by a leaf-like bract that is appressed and longer than the calyx. The calyx is 5 lobed with the lobes longer than the tube. The corolla is pink in color, with 2 yellow stripes and numerous purple spots. The corolla is 5 lobed. The fruit is a capsule about as long as wide. Prairie False Foxglove is hemiparasitic. Seedlings must establish a connection to the roots of grass plants for continued growth. Prairie False Foxglove is listed as an S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G4G5 species (G4-imperiled globally because of rarity, or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors. G5 - demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery).—A. Diamond

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Native S2 (State Rank) G4G5 (Global Rank)

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