Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Lamiids: Lamiales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Chelone lyonii
FAMILY
Plantaginaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
Read more about Mountain Turtlehead at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Chelone lyonii
FAMILY
Scrophulariaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH Flora of North America
Chelone lyonii
SYNONYMOUS WITH VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 166-13-002:
Chelone lyonii FAMILY Scrophulariaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH (ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT) Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Chelone lyoni
COMMON NAME:
Mountain Turtlehead, Pink Turtlehead, Appalachian Turtlehead
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_chly2_001_lvd
)
JK Marlow jkm230428_2894
April Greenville County SC
Mountain Bridge Wilderness
)
JK Marlow jkm230428_2895
April Greenville County SC
Mountain Bridge Wilderness
)
JK Marlow jkm230623_4176
June Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
JK Marlow jkm0407w_13
July Mitchell County NC
The Roan Highlands
Leaves are egg-shaped; leaf stalks 0.5-1" long, per Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977).
)
JK Marlow jkm090726_029
July Yancey County NC
Mount Mitchell State Park
)
JK Marlow jkm090726_030
July Yancey County NC
Mount Mitchell State Park
Flower's lower lip has a prominent yellow beard, per Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005).
)
JK Marlow jkm0508c_28
August Transylvania County NC
Blue Ridge Parkway
)
JK Marlow jkm060813_056
August Haywood County NC
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
)
JK Marlow jkm120830_230
August Henderson County NC
Holmes Educational Forest
Leaves widest below middle, rounded at the base; most petioles at least 1/2", per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998).
)
JK Marlow jkm210824_3014
August Greenville County SC
Tall Pines Wildlife Management Area
)
Tim Spira tps_clyonii
August
)
Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_c_lyonii_appalachian
September
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Chelone lyonii
FAMILY
Plantaginaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Chelone lyonii
FAMILY
Scrophulariaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Flora of North America
Chelone lyonii
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 166-13-002:
Chelone lyonii
FAMILY
Scrophulariaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH (ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT)
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Chelone lyoni
313
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: cove forests, spruce-fir forests, balds, streambanks, per Weakley's Flora
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Uncommon in Carolina Mountains (rare elsewhere in GA-NC-SC)
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
LEAVES:
Simple
Opposite
FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
Purplish
Bilaterally symmetrical
5-lobed calyx
2-lipped corolla
4 fertile included stamens (2 long, 2 short) & 1 sterile with white filament
Superior ovary
Bisexual
FRUIT:
Fall
Capsule
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002) p115
- Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers (Campbell, Hutson, Sharp, & Hutson, 1962) p128
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 1st ed. (Porcher & Rayner, 2001) p138
- Guide to the Wildflowers of SC, 2nd ed. (McMillan, Porcher, Rayner, & White; 2022) p148
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977) p094
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019) p327
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999) p087
- Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia (Chafin, 2016) p328
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p239
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p283
- Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont (Spira, 2011) p348
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p154
If a search such as "Carex leptalea var. leptalea" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "Carex leptalea".
Or, to minimize chances of a misspelling, try just "Carex le".
Less is more: If "pencil flower" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "pencil".