Biogeographical, Ecological, Morphological, And Micromorphological Analyses Of The Species In The Hexastylis Heterophylla Complex

The genus Hexastylis Raf. (commonly known as "Wild Ginger" or "Little Brown Jugs") is comprised of nine species that are distributed throughout the southeast of North America. Blomquist (1957) and Gaddy (1987) both recognized a group of eight Hexastylis species as the Virginica Group. Blomquist further divided the group into three subgroups: Virginica, Shuttleworthii, and Heterophylla. Three species have been recognized in the Hexastylis heterophylla complex: H. heterophylla (Ashe) Small, H. minor (Ashe) Blomquist, and H. naniflora Blomquist. Field biologists have generally recognized considerable morphological overlap occurring within this group . . . The H. heterophylla complex was the focus of this thesis research, with an emphasis on the biology of the imperiled species H. naniflora. Herbarium specimens (N=693) borrowed from 17 herbaria were used to generate distribution maps for the three species in the H. heterophylla complex.