Baccharis halimifolia

Baccharis halimifolia is a North American species of shrubs in the daisy family. It is native to Nova Scotia, the eastern and southern United States (from Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas and Oklahoma),[2] eastern Mexico (Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Quintana Roo),[3] the Bahamas,[4] and Cuba.[5][6][7][8][9]

Baccharis halimifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Baccharis
Species:
B. halimifolia
Binomial name
Baccharis halimifolia
Natural range of Baccharis halimifolia in United States + Bahamas
Synonyms[1]
  • Baccharis axillaris Mart. ex Baker
  • Baccharis halimifolia var. angustior DC.
  • Conyza halimifolia Desf.

Widely used common names include eastern baccharis, groundsel bush, sea myrtle, and saltbush, with consumption weed, cotton-seed tree, groundsel tree, menguilié, and silverling also used more locally. In most of its range, where no other species of the genus occur, this plant is often simply called baccharis.

Classification
Flowering Baccharis halimifolia in late autumn in central North Carolina

Baccharis halimifola was first described and named by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum, published in 1753. No subspecies or varieties are recognized within the species.

This species is the northernmost member of the large Western Hemisphere genus Baccharis in the aster family (Asteraceae).

Senecio arborescens, a Neotropical species, was confused with Baccharis halimifolia in the past.

Description
Late fall flowerheads, with purple sheath around silky white pappus
Carl Linnaeus, who first named and described Baccharis halimifolia (1775 portrait by Alexander Roslin)

Baccharis halimifolia is a fall-flowering shrub growing to about 12 ft (4 m) high and comparably wide, or occasionally a small tree. Its simple, alternate, thick, egg-shaped to rhombic leaves mostly have coarse teeth, with the uppermost leaves entire. These fall-flowering Baccharis plants are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate individuals. Their flowers are borne in numerous small, compact heads in large leafy terminal inflorescences, with the snowy-white, cotton-like female flower-heads showy and conspicuous at a distance.[10][11]

The species is sometimes confused with the marsh-elder (Iva frutescens),[12] with which it often co-occurs, but the Baccharis has its leaves alternate, while those of the Iva are opposite.[10]

Ecology

Baccharis halimifolia, usually found in wetlands, is unusually salt-tolerant, and often found along salty or brackish shores of marshes and estuaries, and the inland shores of coastal barrier islands. In Florida, it is also found along ditches, in old fields, and in other disturbed areas.[11] Other habitats in the northeastern United States include freshwater tidal marshes and open woods and thickets along the seacoast.[10]

The flowers produce abundant nectar that attracts various butterflies, including the monarch (Danaus plexippus).[11] These dense shrubs also provide wildlife food and cover.[11]

Invasiveness
Leaves, and long thin seeds with fluffy hairs for windblown dispersal

In Australia, B. halimifolia is an invasive species along the coast of southern Queensland and New South Wales.[5] As biological control the rust fungus Puccinia evadens is used.[13] The species has also become naturalized in Europe[11] and in New Zealand.[11]

In the northeastern United States, the species has become common well inland of the shrub's natural range along various major highways where road salt is heavily used,[7] sometimes forming conspicuous displays when flowering in the fall, as along I-95 in Howard County, Maryland.

Toxicity

The seeds of Baccharis halimifolia are toxic to humans.[11]

Uses

Baccharis halimifolia is occasionally cultivated, useful as a hedge or border as well as a specimen plant.[11] In southern Louisiana, it has been traditionally used as a medicine to treat inflamed kidneys and fever.[14]

References
  1. The Plant List Baccharis halimifolia L.
  2. Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  3. Sousa Sánchez, M. & E. F. Cabrera Cano. 1983. Flora de Quintana Roo. Listados Floríst. México 2: 1–100.
  4. USGS Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center: Digital Representations of Tree Species Range Maps from "Atlas of United States Trees" by Elbert L. Little, Jr. (and other publications)
  5. "Baccharis halimifolia". Flora of North America. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  6. Hitchcock, A.S. & P. C. Standley (1919). Flora of the District of Columbia and Vicinity (Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, vol.21). Washington: United States National Museum (Reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, LaVergne, Tennessee, 2010). pp. 329 (+42 plates). ISBN 1-4369-8558-7.
  7. "Eastern Baccharis (Baccharis halimifolia)" (PDF). Pennsylvania Rare Plant Species. Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  8. "Species at Risk Conservation Fund 2009 Approved Projects". Nova Scotia Canada Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  9. Heering, Wilhelm Christian August 1907. in Urban, Ignatz, Symbolae Antillanae seu Fundamenta Florae Indiae Occidentalis 5(2): 243 in Latin, mention of Cuba under var. angustior
  10. Tiner, Ralph W. Jr. (1987). A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Northeastern United States. Amherst [Massachusetts]: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 0-87023-538-9.
  11. Brown, Steven H. & Kim Cooperrider. "Baccharis halimifolia" (PDF). University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Services. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  12. "Iva frutescens". Flora of North America. Flora of North America. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  13. Jim Cullen, Mic Julien, Rachel McFadyen: Biological Control of Weeds in Australia. Csiro Publishing, 2012. Seite 91f
  14. http://www.botanical.pbrc.edu/pdf/Brassieur%20Medicinal%20Plants.pdf

Other references
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