Index of Species Information
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
Introductory
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION :
Van Deelen, Timothy R. 1991. Eupatorium capillifolium. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station,
Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/forb/eupcap/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION :
EUPCAP
SYNONYMS :
Eupatorium compositifolium Walt.
SCS PLANT CODE :
EUCA5
COMMON NAMES :
dogfennel
TAXONOMY :
The currently accepted scientific name for dogfennel is Eupatorium
capillifolium (Lam.) Small (Asteraceae) [2,6]. Eupatorium
compositifolium Walt. and E. leptophyllum D.C. are closely related
species which some authors include as varieties of E. capillifolium
[2,11]. There are no recognized subspecies or varieties.
LIFE FORM :
Forb
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS :
No special status
OTHER STATUS :
NO-ENTRY
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION :
Dogfennel grows in the southeastern United States from southern Florida
west to eastern Texas. Its range extends north to Tennesee, Virginia,
and New Jersey. It is occasional farther north along the East Coast to
Massachusetts [2].
ECOSYSTEMS :
FRES12 Longleaf - slash pine
FRES13 Loblolly - shortleaf pine
FRES14 Oak - pine
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES16 Oak - gum - cypress
FRES41 Wet grasslands
STATES :
AL AR CT DE FL GA LA MA NJ NY
NC RI SC TN TX VA
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS :
NO-ENTRY
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS :
K079 Palmetto prarie
K080 Marl - everglades
K089 Black belt
K090 Live oak - sea oats
K091 Cypress savanna
K092 Everglades
K110 Northeastern oak - pine forest
K111 Oak - hickory - pine forest
K112 Southern mixed forest
K113 Southern floodplain forest
K114 Pocosin
K115 Sand pine scrub
K116 Subtropical pine forest
SAF COVER TYPES :
40 Post oak - blackjack oak
43 Bear oak
45 Pitch pine
46 Eastern redcedar
57 Yellow poplar
61 River birch - sycamore
64 Sassafras - persimmon
69 Sand pine
70 Longleaf pine
71 Longleafpine - scrub oak
72 Southern scrub oak
75 Shortleaf pine
76 Shortleaf pine - oak
78 Virginia pine - oak
79 Virginia pine
80 Loblolly pine - shortleaf pine
81 Loblolly pine
82 Loblolly pine hardwood
83 Longleaf pine - slash pine
84 Slash pine
87 Sweet gum - yellow poplar
97 Atlantic white-cedar
111 South Florida slash pine
SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES :
NO-ENTRY
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES :
Wells [18] cited dogfennel as a dominant of mid-seral, coastal meadows
in his classification of Coastal Plain community types.
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE :
Dogfennel has no value as forage for wildlife and livestock [9,15].
PALATABILITY :
Dogfennel probably has very low palatability. Cattle graze it sparingly
if at all, even when other forage is scarce [9].
NUTRITIONAL VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
COVER VALUE :
NO-ENTRY
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER USES AND VALUES :
NO-ENTRY
OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
Dogfennel may serve as a reservior for disease-causing pathogens when
growing among food crops [4].
Dogfennel is scarce on forest ranges in good condition [9]. Grazing
forage utilization in excess of 65 percent will favor dogfennel
establishment [3]. Dogfennel presence may indicate overgrazing.
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Dogfennel is a common, aggressively weedy native of the southeastern
United States [2,14]. It is alternately described as an annual [2,9,16]
and a perennial [6,14]. It has several stems arising from a stout woody
caudex. It grows in distinct colonies on favorable sites. Dogfennel
normally reaches 4 to 5 feet (1.2-1.5 m) in height but can reach up to 9
feet (2.7 m) on fertile sites [9]. The fruit is a smooth achene [9].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM :
Hemicryptophyte
Therophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES :
Dogfennel is wind pollinated [9]. Following the typical pattern of
weedy plants, dogfennel's primary mode of regeneration is probably
sexual. Its regeneration strategy probably depends on the production of
a great many wind-dispersed seeds.
SITE CHARACTERISTICS :
Dogfennel grows on disturbed sites in the Southeast. It is common on
young burns in the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda)-turkey oak (Quercus
laevis) type in Florida's Ocala National Forest [10], on recent burns in
the Okefenokee Swamp [1], on burned and cut Atlantic white-cedar
(Chamaecyparis thyoides) sites in the Great Dismal Swamp [14], and on
overgrazed sites in Louisiana [3]. Dogfennel is a frequent invader of
everglades sawgrass (Cladium sp.) communities during drought [7,13].
Other dogfennel sites include meadows, swales, old fields, pond borders,
ditches, disturbed or overgrazed pastures, and roadsides [9]. Although
apparently able to grow on a variety of soils, it is most common on dry,
sandy soils [9].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS :
Obligate Initial Community Species
Dogfennel is intolerant of closed or highly structured communities [9].
It is undoubtedly an early seral, if not an invader, species in most
successional progressions within its range.
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT :
Dogfennel biomass peaks in the spring [14]. Its flowering period is
unusually long because shaded plants bloom earlier than those in full
sun. A population of dogfennel near Gainsville Florida had the
following phenological sequence [3].
Phenological event Timing
------------------ -----------------------------
Flowering late August - early November
Fruit ripening early - mid November
Fruit dispersal late November - early December
Drying late November - mid January
Dormancy mid January - early March
Bolting early April - June
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS :
The fire ecology of dogfennel has not been adequately described.
Dogfennel probably depends on off-site seed sources to colonize
recently burned areas. Sprouting from a surviving caudex may also
occur.
FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find Fire Regimes".
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT :
Most fires probably kill or at least top-kill dogfennel. Its caudex may
survive cool fires.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF FIRE EFFECT :
NO-ENTRY
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE :
The presence of dogfennel on recently burned sites [1,10,14] indicates
that seedling establishment and/or sprouting occurs following fire.
DISCUSSION AND QUALIFICATION OF PLANT RESPONSE :
NO-ENTRY
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS :
NO-ENTRY
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Eupatorium capillifolium
REFERENCES :
1. Cypert, Eugene. 1961. The effects of fires in the Okefenokee Swamp in
1954 and 1955. American Midland Naturalist. 66(2): 485-503. [11018]
2. Duncan, Wilbur H.; Duncan, Marion B. 1987. The Smithsonian guide to
seaside plants of the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts from Louisiana to
Massachusetts, exclusive of lower peninsular Florida. Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution Press. 409 p. [12906]
3. Duvall, V. L.; Linnartz, N. E. 1967. Influences of grazing and fire on
vegetation and soil of longleaf pine - bluestem range. Journal of Range
Management. 20: 241-247. [7623]
4. Edwards, W. H.; Jones, R. K. 1984. Additions to the weed host range of
Meloidogyne hapla. Plant Disease. 68(9): 811-812. [15899]
5. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
6. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. [Corrections
supplied by R. C. Rollins]. Portland, OR: Dioscorides Press. 1632 p.
(Dudley, Theodore R., gen. ed.; Biosystematics, Floristic & Phylogeny
Series; vol. 2). [14935]
7. Forthman, Carol Ann. 1973. The effects of prescribed burning on
sawgrass. Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami. 83 p. Thesis. [14571]
8. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
9. Grelen, Harold E.; Hughes, Ralph H. 1984. Common herbaceous plants of
Southern forest range. Res. Pap. SO-210. New Orleans, LA: U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest and Range
Experiment Station. 147 p. [2946]
10. Harlow, Richard F.; Bielling, Paul. 1961. Controlled burning studies in
longleaf pine-turkey oak association on the Ocala National Forest.
Proceeding, Annual Conference of Southeastern Association of Game and
Fish. 15: 9-24. [9905]
11. Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of
the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume
II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie
Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p. [6954]
12. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
13. Loveless, Charles M. 1959. A study of the vegetation in the Florida
Everglades. Ecology. 40(1): 1-9. [11478]
14. McKinley, Carol E.; Day, Frank P., Jr. 1979. Herb. prod. in cut-burned,
uncut-burned & contl areas of a Chamaecyparis thyoides (L.) BSP
(Cupressaceae) stand in the Great Dismal Swamp. Bulletin of the Torrey
Botanical Club. 106(1): 20-28. [14089]
15. Murray, Robert W.; Frye, O. E., Jr. 1964. The bobwhite quail and its
management in Florida. 2d ed. Game Publ. No. 2. [Place of publication
unknown]: Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. 55 p. [15421]
16. Patton, Janet Easterday; Judd, Walter S. 1988. A phenological study of
20 vascular plant species occurring on the Paynes Prairie Basin, Alachua
County, Florida. Castanea. 53(2): 149-163. [15081]
17. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant
geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843]
18. Wells, B. W. 1928. Plant communities of the Coastal Plain of North
Carolina and their successional relations. Ecology. 9(2): 230-242.
[9307]
19. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern
Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire
Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p. [20090]
20. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982.
National list of scientific plant names. Vol. 1. List of plant names.
SCS-TP-159. Washington, DC. 416 p. [11573]
FEIS Home Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/forb/eupcap/all.html
