A common plant of salt marshes of the Chesapeake Bay and Coastal Bays. Lavender Thrift grows along the Atlantic Seaboard from Maine to Florida. It also grows along the Gulf Coast from Florida to the Texas coast, and south into Mexico.
Lavender Thrift is an erect plant with ovate basal leaves that form a rosette at the bottom of the stem. Lavender Thrift blooms in the late summer and early fall. Blooming dates in the MBP database range from 8/16 through 10/1, with an outlier blooming date of 11/4. Lavender Thrift has small light purple flowers (1/8" wide). The flowers grow only on one side of a branch. The white sepals may persist after the flowers have withered and fallen.
The salt marshes of Elliott Island Road, Deal Island WMA, and Assateague Island.
Along the Gulf Coast there has been studies that show there is facultative mutualism between the Atlantic Ribbed Mussel and Lavender Thrift (Moore, 2016). In Maine, Charley Eiseman found leaf mines on Lavender Thrift, but no one can figure out what caused the mines. There is speculation that the mines may have been caused by a crustacean or worm (Bug Tracks, 2013).
There are 94 records in the project database.
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