[Taxacom] Help needed with plant ID (Brooklyn, NY)

Tue Jun 16 05:50:38 CDT 2015

Thanks very much to Pete Phillipson and Timothy Jones for identifying my mystery plant. The pictures of Japanese Mazus (Mazus pumilus) returned from a Google search agree well with the specimens I photographed. I am not a botanist and none of the 'popular' plant identifying books I have (e.g. Wildflowers in the Field and Forest by Clemants & Gracie; Weeds of the Northeast by Uva, Neal & DiTomaso; Flora of the Northeast by Magee & Ahles) include it but I did subsequently locate it in Fernald's 8th edition of Gray's Manual of Botany (under the name Mazus japonicus). I noticed the USDA Plants Database (http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=MAPU7) shows the species occurring over much of eastern and southeastern U.S. and some western states such as California. Some sources list the genus Mazus under Scrophulariaceae.

Thanks again to Pete and Timothy for their expert ID. The power of Taxacom is truly amazing!
Priyantha

D. P. Wijesinghe
dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com
      From: Peter B. Phillipson <pphillipson at gmail.com>
 To: 'Timothy Jones' <tjone54 at tigers.lsu.edu>; 'Dilrukshan Wijesinghe' <dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com> 
 Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2015 4:33 AM
 Subject: RE: [Taxacom] Help needed with plant ID (Brooklyn, NY)

#yiv5577703266 #yiv5577703266 -- _filtered #yiv5577703266 {panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv5577703266 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv5577703266 {font-family:Tahoma;panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}#yiv5577703266 #yiv5577703266 p.yiv5577703266MsoNormal, #yiv5577703266 li.yiv5577703266MsoNormal, #yiv5577703266 div.yiv5577703266MsoNormal {margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;}#yiv5577703266 a:link, #yiv5577703266 span.yiv5577703266MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5577703266 a:visited, #yiv5577703266 span.yiv5577703266MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv5577703266 p.yiv5577703266MsoAcetate, #yiv5577703266 li.yiv5577703266MsoAcetate, #yiv5577703266 div.yiv5577703266MsoAcetate {margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:8.0pt;}#yiv5577703266 span.yiv5577703266EmailStyle17 {color:#1F497D;}#yiv5577703266 span.yiv5577703266BalloonTextChar {}#yiv5577703266 .yiv5577703266MsoChpDefault {} _filtered #yiv5577703266 {margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}#yiv5577703266 div.yiv5577703266WordSection1 {}#yiv5577703266 I looked into it a bit more in the herbarium this morning and agree it’s more likely M. pumila. I was particularly interested to note that it occurs as a weed in humid tropical areas too, such as east coastal Madagascar (where I work a lot). Pete  

From: Timothy Jones [mailto:tjone54 at tigers.lsu.edu] 
Sent: 16 June 2015 05:52
To: Peter Phillipson
Cc: Dilrukshan Wijesinghe; Taxacom List
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Help needed with plant ID (Brooklyn, NY)  Agree with Pete.  Common in the cracks of a flagstone path that gets plenty of dihydrogen monoxide.  Maybe M. pumila?    On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:16 PM, Peter Phillipson <Peter.Phillipson at mobot.org> wrote:Looks like Mazus reptans (Phymaceae) to me.

Pete Phillipson

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab® S

-------- Original message --------
From: Dilrukshan Wijesinghe <dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com>
Date: 16/06/2015 4:46 am (GMT+01:00)
To: Taxacom List <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: [Taxacom] Help needed with plant ID (Brooklyn, NY)

I would appreciate help in identifying a small inconspicuous herbaceous plant occasionally found growing in sidewalk/pavement cracks here in Brooklyn, New York. It appears to have opposite lobed leaves and an irregular white-mauve flower, the latter with a pair of yellow spots on the lower "lip". It is found growing in places preferred by Sagina procumbens (Birdseye Pearlwort) - i.e. pavement cracks with rather rich soil not subject to drying. I have considered all the likely families and genera in this area with irregular flowers but nothing seems to match.

Please see the five most recent photos in my (Elaphrornis) Flickr Photostream:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23177312 at N06

Thanks in advance for any help.

Priyantha
D. P. Wijesinghe
dpwijesinghe at yahoo.com
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Celebrating 28 years of Taxacom in 2015.
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