Meadow Beauty from Maggie in SC

I believe this plant is a meadow-beauty, but am not sure which one. Is it the awned meadow-beauty? It is growing by a cataract bog in Greenville County SC

 

Hi Maggie, always nice to see Sarracenia jonesii from the Upstate which is also in your picture! Assuming that this is one of the mountain bogs in a natural area, there are only 2 possibilities that this meadow-beauty can be – Rhexia mariana or Rhexia virginica.  However, it does not readily key out to either because both have small bristle hairs on their stems, which I cannot see in your image.  The larger flowers and leaves suggests to me that it is Rhexia virginica, however.   The awned meadow beauty [Rhexia aristosa] is known only from the sandhills and coastal plain and is rather scarce.  There is no reason it would be in the mountains, and it does not look too much like it – that one has bristles on the calyx lobes, for example.

So, in this case, I can just give you a best guess.    I hope this helps.

Sincerely,  Steve Hill, SCNPS

 

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