Carolina Elephantsfoot (Elephantopus carolinianus Raeusch.)
↑Range - Expand
| Legend | Color |
| Native | |
| Extirpated | |
| Native or Not Present |
This tentative map is based on our own research. It may have limited data on Canada and/or Mexico, and there is some subjectivity in our assignment of plants as introduced vs. expanded. Read more in this blog post.
Although this plant occurs somewhere in each of these regions, it may only occur in a small part of some or all of them.
↑Habitat
Elephantopus carolinianum is found in a variety of slightly-open forests in the southeastern US, including both deciduous and mixed pine-oak-hickory forests, including both bottomland and upland forests. It is occasionally found in anthropogenic habitat included shaded roadside ditches, and woodland edges in parks and gardens.
It can be found in a range of moisture conditions and soil textures. It is usually classified as a facultative upland species, meaning it mostly occurs on dry ground but can occasionally occur in uplands. It is frequently found on sandy soils, and on these soils, is more restricted to moist sites. In floodplains and bottomlands it is restricted to locally-well-drained sites. It also occurs on loamy and rocky soils. It is less common on clayey soils but can occur on them on well-drained sites, particularly on slopes.
It is largely indifferent to soil pH and can be found from calcareous soils such as those derived from limestone, through moderately-acidic soils common in pine-hardwood forests in the southeast, although it is absent from both extremes of soil pH.
When it occurs in bottomlands, this plant tends to have superior drought tolerance to most of the other plants around it, which can lead it to thrive in periods unusually dry weather.
It often occurs on sites that have experienced local disturbance, such as browsing from herbivores, or light weedwhacking or pruning of woodland edges. It can increase in areas with heavy deer browsing.
↑Life Cycle
Carolina Elephant's Foot is a late-emerging perennial that reproduces both vegetatively and by seed. Basal leaves, pressed closely against the ground, often emerge in mid-spring, typically after most spring ephemerals are done blooming and after many herbaceous plants are already growing upright.
Plants in late summer to early fall.
Plants may reproduce vegetatively by short rhizomes on favorable sites.
↑Links & External Resources
• Elephantopus carolinianus (Carolina elephantsfoot) | USDA PLANTS Database (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus (Elephant's Foot) | Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus | Biota of North America Project (BONAP) (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus | NatureServe Explorer (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus | Flora of North America (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus | Missouri Plants (About This Site)
• Carolina Elephant's-foot | Maryland Biodiversity Project (About This Site)
• Elephantopus carolinianus Raeusch. (Carolina Elephant's-foot) | Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (About This Site)
