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New thoroughwort plant variety found in southern Arkansas

The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission says the plant is a hybrid of Mohr's and lance-leave thoroughworts and hasn't been documented elsewhere
Thoroughwort plant, Getty Images

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Botanists have identified a new variety of the thoroughwort plant in southern Arkansas.

The Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission says the plant is a hybrid of Mohr's and lance-leave thoroughworts and hasn't been documented elsewhere.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Monday that researchers don't know yet whether the hybrid will be able to reproduce asexually from seed, making a genetic copy of itself. The plants are in the genus Eupatorium, a group of plants in the sunflower family.

A commission botanist, Theo Witsell, said three other samples sent off for identification were known plants but hadn't been documented in Arkansas before. Two of the specimens were Mohr's thoroughwort, which had been seen only in the eastern United States plus south Louisiana and the adjoining part of Texas.

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