Slender False Foxglove

Appearance

''Agalinis tenuifolia'' is 20 to 60 centimeters tall, with a slender, paniculately branched stem. Its simple opposite leaves are 20 to 50 millimeters long, and only 1 to 3.5 millimeters wide.

The flowers are borne on 10 to 20 millimeter long pedicels. Each flower is bilaterally symmetrical, with five 10 to 15 millimeter long petals fused into a corolla tube, and four stamens. The fruit is a round 3 to 7 millimeter long dry capsule that splits open when ripe.

Distribution

''Agalinis tenuifolia'' is widely distributed in the eastern United States and Canada, although local distribution may be spotty.

It has been recorded in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming, as well as the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec.

Status

Agalinis tenuifolia var. parviflora is listed as a species of special concern (S-rank: S2) in the state of Rhode Island. The presence of this species is dependent on appropriate habitat, and it may be eliminated from an area by development, changes in land use, or competition with invasive species.

Habitat

Habitats include moist to mesic prairies, sand prairies, savannas, sandy savannas, woodland borders, sandstone glades, thickets, low sand flats, silty or sandy roadside ditches, and edges of fields. This species tends to occur in slightly disturbed habitats with infertile soil and sparse ground vegetation. It has low fidelity to any particular habitat. In Virginia it grows in habitats including dry woods and barrens, but particularly in open disturbed areas such as old fields, however, in Michigan, it grows in moist or even marshy ground, including river banks.

Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats), brackish or salt marshes and flats, fresh tidal marshes or flats, meadows and fields, woodlands

Predators

Plants are eaten by the larvae of Junonia coenia (Common Buckeye Butterfly).