Pyxidanthera barbulata
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Photo Courtesy Renee Brecht |
Britton & Brown |
| Botanical name: | Pyxidanthera barbulata |
| Common name: | pyxiemoss |
| Group: | dicot |
| Family: | Diapensiaceae |
| Growth type: | subshrub, forb/herb |
| Duration: | perennial |
| Origin: | native |
| Plant height: | 6 - 10" long |
| Foliage: | prostrate, trailing, with tiny narrow, linear, needle-like leaves; evergreen, resembling a moss |
| Flower: | small, numerous flowers, with 5 blunt lobes, white to pale pink |
| Flowering time: | Bloom early April to May; fruits May to June |
| Habitat: | sandy, dry ground of pinelands |
| Range in New Jersey: | throughout the Pine Barrens; infrequent on the Inner Coastal Plain |
| Heritage ranking, if any: | n/a |
| Distribution: |  |
| Misc. | Stone, in 1910, says "The Pyxie to some extent takes the place of
the Hepatica in the Pine Barrens as one of the emblems of spring.
Certainly there are few more attractive sights in the still brown woods
than its white starry blossoms looking forth from their green moss-like
setting and often partly covered by dead srands of grass or withered
leaves which have covered them during the winter. The Pyxie seems to
grow both in dry and moist situations, but always in sand, sometimes
forming patches a foot in diameter, with little sprays trailing off
from the maini colony each lined with the little round petaled
flowers"(629). |