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Pedicularis furbishiae
Also called Furbish’s Lousewort, Saint John River Wood Betony, Furbish Lousewort, St. Johns River Lousewort
Furbish's lousewort is a rare, hemiparasitic perennial herb found only on the riverbanks of the upper Saint John River in Maine and New Brunswick, and is endangered. It is not a garden plant and is essentially impossible to grow casually; it needs wet, unstable, semi-shaded, flood-scoured banks.
Pedicularis furbishiae, or Furbish's lousewort, is a perennial herb found only on the shores of the upper Saint John River in Maine and New Brunswick. Furbish's lousewort was first recognized as a new species by Maine naturalist and botanical artist Kate Furbish (who named it Furbish's wood betony) in 1880. It is considered an endangered species in the United States and Canada, and is threatened by habitat destruction, as well as riverside development, forestry, littering and recreational use of the riverbank. It was formerly in the family Scrophulariaceae, but is now placed in the family Orobanchaceae. Once thought to be extinct, it is considered a Lazarus taxon.
Furbish's lousewort grows on the bank of the Saint John River in three areas of New Brunswick and at 18 sites in Maine. It needs moist, unstable, semi-shaded, eroding banks subject to flooding, and ice-scouring. In this way, it is typical of an entire group of shoreline species (e.g. Sabatia kennedyana, Platanthera flava) that grow in wet meadows created by spring flooding and ice scour, combined with summer low water periods. Its range extends 225 km (140 mi) from "the town of Andover, New Brunswick ... upstream to a point 2.4 km (1.5 mi) past the confluence with the Big Black River in Aroostook County, Maine". Despite only being found in a limited range today, previous records show it was found throughout the Aroostook River, but recent surveys have found no such populations.
Pedicularis asplenifolia · Little elephantshead · Pedicularis bhutanomuscoides · Bracted lousewort · Pedicularis cacuminidenta · Pedicularis caeruleoalbescens · Canadian lousewort · Dwarf lousewort · Coiled lousewort · Arctic Hairy Lousewort · Indian warrior · Pedicularis dhurensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pedicularis furbishiae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
