DECEPTIVE LEATHERWOOD
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| File Size: 24 KB |
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Dirca decipiens Floden
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| Johnson County, Kansas |
| Height: Shrubs to 6(-10) feet |
| Family: Thymelaeaceae - Mezereum Family |
| Flowering Period: March, April |
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| Trunks: | | Stems erect; bark gray to tan, smooth; wood white, soft. | | Twigs: | | Yellowish brown, flexible, appressed-pubescent; leaf scars crescent-shaped; pith white; buds hidden in hollow petiole bases, brown, ovoid, .04 to .08 inch, apex obtuse, scales densely silky. | | Leaves: | | Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .04 to .16 inch, densely appressed-pubescent; blade obovate to elliptic or oblong, 73 to 3.6 inches long, 1.8 to 2.4 inches wide, base rounded, margins entire, ciliate, apex rounded, lower surfaces green to light green, silky, upper surfaces green, sparsely silky along midvein. | | Flowers: | | Inflorescences axillary on new growth, fascicles, (2-)3(-6)-flowered; bracts 4, outer 2 dropping off early, inner 2 persistent, leaf-like, oblong-obovate, .24 to .6 inch, elongating to 1.6 inches in fruit, abaxially densely silky; pedicels 0–1 mm. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric, nodding; sepals 4, connate proximally, calyx tube green to yellowish green, tubular to funnelform, .16 to .3 inch, lobes triangular, .12 to .16 inch; petals absent or represented by minute scales; stamens 8, adnate to calyx tube throat, exserted; pistil 1, 1-locular; ovary superior; style 1, slightly exserted. | | Fruit: | | June-July; drupes, green, often turning yellow distally, ovoid to pyriform, .3 to .43 inch long, .16 to .2 inch wide, sparsely hairy at apex; stone 1, brown, sometimes mottled, ovoid, .28 to .4 inch long, .12 to .18 inch wide, longitudinally grooved on 1 side. | | Habitat: | | Bases of limestone bluffs, stream banks. | | Distribution: | | Johnson County, Kansas | | Origin: | | Native | | Comments: | | Dirca decipiens was described as distinct from D. palustris L. (Atlantic leatherwood) in 2009. At the time of its description, it was known only from populations in two counties in Arkansas, two counties in Missouri, and Johnson County, Kansas, the largest of the populations (Floden, Mayfield, and Ferguson 2009). |
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| Deceptive leatherwood habit |  | | 167 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Deceptive leatherwood buds |  | | 26 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Deceptive leatherwood bark |  | | 85 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Deceptive leatherwood leaves |  | | 60 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Deceptive leatherwood fruit |  | | 73 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
| | Deceptive leatherwood flowers |  | | 30 KB | | Johnson County, Kansas |
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