Clinopodium ashei (Weath.) Small:
United States (North America)

Satureja ashei Weath.:
United States (North America)

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: Occurs in Highlands, Polk, Marion, Volusia counties, Florida; also reported from Lake and Orange counties and in one county in Georgia.

Most similar to Calamintha dentata, a very rank smelling shrub confined to northwestern Florida which has broader, somewhat larger, usually cuneate-obovate leaves that have at least some teeth toward the apex (Kral, 1983).

Another similar species, Conradina canescens, occurs in Polk and Highlands counties. Leaves are conspicuously, densely, short gray-pubescent on both surfaces, with the leaf glands obscured by the pubescence. The leaves often have leafy, short branchlets in their axils, with the leaves of the branchlets shorter than those subtending them. Flowers occur in 1 to 5-flowered cymes in the leaf axils; usually not all flowers are open simultaneously (Godfrey 1988).

Comments: Dry pinelands and sand pine scrub in canopy openings and disturbed areas.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 21 - 80

Comments: Seventy-one known occurrences (10/90).

Calamintha ashei, a perennial shrub, is most commonly found in openings in sand pine scrub, but also can be found in disturbed areas such as fire lanes, road shoulders, and abandoned fields. It flowers intermittently from January to April, and more rarely until autumn (Wunderlin 1982, Kral 1983, Menges and Salzman 1992).

Plants are killed by fire, and presumably are also unable to resprout if aboveground vegetation is killed during any other type of disturbance. Seeds have no obvious dispersal mechanism, and drop beneath the parent plants. Although plants flower and produce seeds yearly, seedlings are not present in undisturbed communities. Seedlings, however, can be found in recently disturbed areas, and usually appear during the second winter after a fire (Carrington unpubl. data, Race pers. communication), presumably after germinating from a soil seed bank. Dormancy mechanisms and germination requirements for seeds are unknown; however, most seed germination appears to occur in microsites with little or no litter.

Although plants can be found in long-undisturbed communities with relatively closed canopies, flowering is usually sparse, and the plants are probably in decline. Kral (1983) suggested that the plants are "shaded out" as canopies close. He also suggested that timber management practices such as bulldozing, root raking, thinning the overstory, or cutting the overstory would benefit populations, but bedding or roller chopping would be detrimental.

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable

Reasons: Endemic to the Florida central highlands and southeastern Georgia, Calamintha ashei is locally common: there are between 60 to 80 occurrences. Threats include development and agriculture.

Comments: Habitat threatened by development and agriculture (primarily citrus industry).

Needs: Acquire and protect several additional large areas of scrub.

Restoration Potential: Restoration potential is good, provided habitat protection continues to increase. Within the species' range, land acquisition by the state is ongoing (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1995), and acquisition for the proposed Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge has begun (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1993).

In sites where restoration through propagation is desirable, propagation from cuttings may be done. Rooting success from cuttings taken at Bok Tower Gardens was 90-95%. Cuttings were placed in perlite in a greenhouse and misted daily. After rooting, cuttings were transplanted to outside beds. Attempts to germinate seeds in the greenhouse for propagation, however, were unsuccessful (Race pers. communication).

Preserve Selection and Design Considerations: If controlled burning is to be the desired management tool, a preserve should be large enough to feasibly use controlled burning as a management tool. Juxtaposition to other landowners and land uses should be such that controlled burning will not threaten property or safety.

Management Requirements: It seems that controlled burning is beneficial to the species, but may not be imperative for effective management. Other management practices that open the canopy and expose bare soil (e.g., clear cutting, root raking) may provide opportunities for increased flowering and/or seedling establishment.

For sites where controlled burning is feasible, optimal fire frequency is not known. The species, however, seems to share several life history characteristics, and is often found in the same sites with the better-understood Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides). Florida rosemary adults are also killed by fire, and this species is extirpated from sites burned more frequently than every ten years (Johnson 1982). A target fire frequency for Calamintha ashei probably should also be every ten years or less.

Management Programs: No active management for this species is known.

Monitoring Programs: No monitoring programs are known for this species.

Management Research Programs: No known management research is being conducted involving this species.

Management Research Needs: Several research questions should be addressed so that populations can be effectively managed:

What population trends result from different land management procedures (e.g., burning, clearcutting, root raking, roller chopping, no disturbance)?

What are habitat and disturbance characteristics (e.g., light availability, litter depth, fire frequency, woody plant cover, amount of bare ground) of vigorous populations?

Under what conditions do the seeds germinate?

What are the pollinators?

How long does it take a plant to reach sexual maturity?

Comments: A study is underway that might result in a name change for the species. Reed Cook, who has just started work on the taxonomy of Conradina and Calamintha, says that Calamintha will probably be put into the genus Diodeilis. Conradina may also be merged with Calamintha, meaning that both might become Diodeilis. Results may be available from his work in 6 to 10 months. Name changes, if required, will be made in a couple of years (Crook pers. communication).

Stewardship Overview: Although not globally imperiled, this plant is restricted to often small, disjunct patches of sand pine scrub. The major threat to populations is destruction of habitat through development or conversion to orange groves. Management of populations through controlled burning or otherwise opening up the canopy and exposing bare soil may be beneficial as it frequently invades abandoned sandy fields or powerine clearings. It may also seed into young plantations of pine, being shaded out later as the crowns close (Kral 1983).

Comments: Distinct species. Clinopodium ashei of Kartesz (1999) was treated in Kartesz (1994) as Calamintha ashei.