Marshallia is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

, endemic to the southeastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. A common name applied to most species in the genus is Barbara's Buttons. There are seven species, all perennials

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

. The small white-to-pinkish flowers occur in large, compact, spherical heads. Marshallia is found in open habitats, such as roadsides, bogs, or open woodlands dominated by pine

Pine

Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

s. Several species are associated with wetlands. The typical blooming period is late spring (May) and early summer (June or early July). Marshallia are very attractive to pollinating insects, including butterflies

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 and various beetle

Beetle

Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...

s, such as flower chafers of the genus Euphoria

Euphoria (beetle)

Euphoria is a genus of New World scarab beetles in the subfamily Cetoniinae, the flower chafers. It is estimated that there are 20-29 species of the genus Euphoria in North America. These beetles are diurnal, and visit flowers to obtain pollen and/or nectar...

(Coin 2005). The genus was named for botanist Humphry Marshall

Humphry Marshall

Humphry Marshall was an American botanist and plant dealer.-Biography:Humphry Marshall was born in the village of Marshallton, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1722. He was the cousin of botanist John Bartram and William Bartram...

.

Species

• Marshallia caespitosa Nutt. ex DC., Puffballs
• Marshallia graminifolia (Walt.) Small, Grassleaf Barbara's buttons
• Marshallia grandiflora
  Marshallia grandiflora
  Marshallia grandiflora is a genus of flowering plants in the family, Asteraceae. It's a Species of Concern with the largest population in the world occurring in West Virginia along the Gauley River....
  
  Beadle
  Chauncey Beadle
  Chauncey Delos Beadle was a Canadian-born botanist and horticulturist active in the southern United States. He was educated in horticulture at Ontario Agricultural College and Cornell University...
  
   & F.E.Boynt.
  Frank Ellis Boynton
  Frank Ellis Boynton was a self-taught American botanist active in the Southeastern United States. He worked at Biltmore Estate with his brother, Charles Lawrence Boynton, and Chauncey Beadle. The oak species Quercus boyntonii was named in honor of Frank Ellis Boynton.- Sources :...
  
  , Monongahela Barbara's buttons
• Marshallia mohrii
  Marshallia mohrii
  Mohr’s Barbara Button, , is a perennial herb species, currently listed as threatened on the Endangered Species List. It has been listed on the Endangered Species list since 1988. Mohr’s Barbara Button is found in the Southeastern United States, in several locations in Alabama and Georgia. The...
  
  Beadle & F.E.Boynt, Mohr's Barbara's buttons
• Marshallia obovata (Walt.) Beadle & F.E.Boynt. Spoonshape Barbara's buttons
• Marshallia ramosa Beadle & F.E.Boynt., Southern Barbara's buttons
• Marshallia trinervia (Walt.) Trel., Broadleaf Barbara's buttons

Conservation

Marshallia grandiflora (Monongahela Barbara's buttons) is of conservation concern. It has been extirpated in some former parts of its range, such as Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

 and North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, and is endangered in Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, and Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. That species is found in bogs and scoured riverbanks, and requires periodic flooding to maintain open habitat. Marshallia obovata (Spoonshape Barbara's buttons or Piedmont Barbara's buttons), is listed as endangered in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and threatened in Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 (Center for Plant Conservation, USDA Plants).

Etymology

The genus name was given by the botanist Schreber

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber

Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber , often styled I.C.D. von Schreber, was a German naturalist.-Career:He was elected Professor of Materia medica at the University of Erlangen in 1769....

 (in Genera Plantarum, 1791) to honor the Marshall family, uncle Humphry

Humphry Marshall

Humphry Marshall was an American botanist and plant dealer.-Biography:Humphry Marshall was born in the village of Marshallton, Pennsylvania on October 10, 1722. He was the cousin of botanist John Bartram and William Bartram...

 and nephew Moses, of Pennsylvania. They were botanists of the American colonial period, and cousins of the famous botanists and explorers John

John Bartram

*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....

 and William Bartram

William Bartram

William Bartram was an American naturalist. The son of Ann and John Bartram, William Bartram and his twin sister Elizabeth were born in Kingsessing, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. As a boy, he accompanied his father on many of his travels, to the Catskill Mountains, the New Jersey Pine Barrens,...

.

The origin of the common name "Barbara's Buttons" is unknown. The flower heads do resemble buttons, but botanical references giving this name do not quote the Barbara which the name honors (Rickett 1975). The reference is possibly to Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara, , Feast Day December 4, known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Great Martyr Barbara, was an early Christian saint and martyr....

, though the association is obscure. Saint Barbara had long hair, and is also associated with lightning--perhaps the individual flowers resemble lightning bolts, or the whole head of flowers resembles Saint Barbara's long locks (Coin 2005). This common name was not, at any rate, widespread in the 19th century. It was not used in Southern Wildflowers and Trees (1901) or Plant Life Of Alabama (1901). The botanist B.W. Wells

Bertram Whittier Wells

Bertram Whittier Wells was an American botanist and ecologist active in North Carolina. His most influential work was Natural Gardens of North Carolina ....

, in Natural Gardens of North Carolina (1932), called the plants "loudspeakers", referring to the megaphone shape of the individual flowers. The first printed use of the name "Barbara's Buttons" is in Small's Flora of The Southeastern United States (1933).