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Wildlife, Animals, and Plants
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Introductory
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
ABBREVIATION :
LYOLUC
SYNONYMS :
Lyonia nitida (Bartr.) Fern. [36]
SCS PLANT CODE :
LYLU3
COMMON NAMES :
fetterbush
hurrahbush
staggerbush
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for fetterbush is Lyonia lucida
(Lam.) K. Koch (Ericaceae). There are no recognized subspecies,
varieties, or forms [9,14].
LIFE FORM :
Shrub
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
COMPILED BY AND DATE :
Timothy R. Van Deelen, 1991
LAST REVISED BY AND DATE :
NO-ENTRY
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Van Deelen, Timothy R. 1991. Lyonia lucida. In: Remainder of Citation
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Fetterbush grows along the United States' southeastern Coastal Plain
from southeastern Virginia, throughout south-central peninsular Florida,
west to Louisiana. It also grows in Cuba [9,14].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES12 Longleaf - slash pine
FRES13 Loblolly - shortleaf pine
FRES14 Oak - pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
FRES41 Wet grasslands
STATES :
AL FL GA LA MS NC SC VA
ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS :
BICY BLRI CAHA COSW CUIS FOCA
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
NO-ENTRY
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K079 Palmetto prairie
K080 Marl - everglades
K089 Black belt
K090 Live oak - sea oats
K091 Cypress savanna
K105 Mangrove
K112 Southern mixed forest
K113 Southern floodplain forest
K114 Pocosin
SAF COVER TYPES :
69 Sand pine
73 Southern redcedar
74 Cabbage palmetto
81 Loblolly pine
83 Longleaf pine - slash pine
84 Slash pine
85 Slash pine - hardwood
98 Pond pine
101 Baldcypress
102 Baldcypress - tupelo
103 Water tupelo - swamp tupelo
104 Sweetbay - swamp tupelo - redbay
106 Mangrove
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Fetterbush is a principal shrub in the understories of pocosins
[13,27,31], bayheads [23], and cypress (Taxodium spp.) heads [18,24]
(all synonyms of "evergreen shrub bog" [27]). Other fetterbush sites
include conifer swamps, seasonally wet flatwoods and savannas,
cypress-gum (Nyssa spp.) ponds, depressions, and broadleaf seepage areas
[6,9,14,28]. It is a principal understory species in the Big Cypress
[7] and Okeefenokee [1] swamps, and one of the more abundant and
constant shrubs in saw-palmetto (Serenoa repens) prairie [35].
Occasionally, fetterbush grows on more xeric sites such as gallberry
(Ilex glabra) flatwoods and dry prairies [2,28]. Austin and others [2]
describe it as a scrub "indicator", although Godfrey [14] considers it
occasional in scrub communities.
Overstory associates include Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis
thyoides), various southern pines (Pinus spp.), sweet bay (Magnolia
virginiana), red bay (Persea borbonia), loblolly bay (Gordonia
lasianthus), cypress, and tupelo (Nyssa spp.) [9,27,28]. Understory
associates include gallberry, shrubby oaks (Quercus spp.), sweetbells
leucothoe (Leucothoe racemosa), highbush blueberry (Vaccinium
corymbosum), sweet pepperbush (Clethera alnifolia), titi (Cyrilla
racemiflora), laurelleaf greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia), and honeycup
(Zenobia pulveralenta) [9,16,27].
VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Because fetterbush is related to several other toxic plants in the
Ericaceae family, Kingsbury [18] suspects that it may be toxic to
livestock as well. Specific use of fetterbush by wildlife has not been
reported although evergreen-shrub-bog habitats (see Site
Characteristics) are important to a variety of southeastern wildlife
species including the black bear, white-tailed deer, bobcat, marsh
rabbit, eastern gray squirrel, eastern diamond-back rattlesnake,
American alligator, pine barrens tree frog, and the endangered
red-cockaded woodpecker [27].
PALATABILITY :
Cattle find fetterbush unpalatable [30].
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
NO-ENTRY
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Because of fetterbush's sprouting response, clearcutting reduces cover
but increases foliage biomass [6].
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Fetterbush is a slow-growing, common, showy, evergreen shrub. It varies
in height from 8 inches (20 cm) to 13 feet (4 m). Large shrubs have
robust, branchy bases with crowns that are as broad as the height of the
plant.
Leaves are simple, alternate, and leathery. They are borne on green
twigs which are flecked with dark, loose, deciduous scales. The small,
pink flowers are borne on fascicles. The fruit is a capsule containing
amber-brown, wedge-shaped seeds.
Fetterbush has extensive, interconnected rhizomes which sprout and form
dense clonal thickets [3,9,14,21].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Phanerophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
The primary mode of fetterbush regeneration is vegetative: Fetterbush
sprouts from rhizomes. In nutrient-poor environments, it devotes its
energy stores to vegetative growth instead of sexual reproduction and
does not flower [31]. Information on seedling establishment and growth
is lacking.
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Fetterbush occurs on sites where flooding is common [14]. Typically,
these sites flood during the spring and dry out during the fall. Water
tables fall well below the soil surface for the better part of the
growing season. Seasonal flooding eliminates upland competitors, and
summer dessication eliminates more hydric competitors [14].
Fetterbush commonly grows on soils that are strongly to extremely
acidic, poorly drained, peaty, and organic (Histisols) [19,27]. It may
grow on the accumulated mats of peat and root fibers that collect around
the bases of cypress trees in cypress swamps [24].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Facultative Seral Species
Fetterbush is a mid-seral species. It follows the establishment of
deciduous shrubs after disturbance in southern swamps. [8,15,25,29].
Although an understory species, it does well in full sunlight [8] and is
one of several shrubs that prospers in lightly or infrequently burned
pine flatwoods [5].
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Fetterbush has been reported to flower from April to June [9], from
February to April [4], or beginning in January [29]. Leaf production
begins in June and continues through September. Most leaves are lost in
the November of their second year [31].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
Fetterbush survives fire by resprouting from rhizomes and dormant basal
buds [3,16,20].
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
Small shrub, adventitious-bud root crown
Rhizomatous shrub, rhizome in soil
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Most fires top-kill fetterbush [30].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
Fetterbush responds to fire by sprouting from its rhizomes and rootstock [30].
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Lyonia lucida | Fetterbush
REFERENCES :
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Ridge vegetation. American Journal of Botany. 71(1): 9-21. [9509]
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patterns on the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, Florida. Journal of Coastal
Research. 3(4): 491-498. [9340]
3. Brown, Sandra L.; Cowles, Sidney W.; Odum, Howard T. 1984. Metabolism
and transpiration of cypress domes in north-central Florida. In: Ewel,
Katherine Carter; Odum, Howard T., eds. Cypress swamps. Gainesville, FL:
University of Florida Press: 145-163. [14847]
4. Clewell, Andre F. 1985. Guide to the vascular plants of the Florida
Panhandle. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University Press. 605 p.
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cover, frequency, and biomass: Early responses to clearcutting,
chopping, and bedding in Pinus elliottii flatwoods. Forest Ecology and
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Swamp following the fires of 1954 and 1955. In: Proceedings, annual Tall
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10. Ewel, Katherine Carter. 1984. Effects of fire and wastewater on
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Index
Related categories for Species: Lyonia lucida
| Fetterbush
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