Dirca mexicana

Dirca mexicana
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Thymelaeaceae
Genus:	Dirca
Species:	D. mexicana
Binomial name
	Dirca mexicana; G.L.Nesom & Mayfield, 1995

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Dirca mexicana, the Mexican leatherwood, is a low shrub with a very restricted population in Tamaulipas, Mexico. However, it does surprisingly well in the much colder environment of Ames, Iowa. Like most Dirca species, it blooms in early spring.

Habitat

Mexican leatherwood grows in forested karstic limestone terrain at an elevation of about 1800 meters. It is shaded mainly by large Douglas-fir, shagbark hickory, Mexican weeping pine and laurinate oak. Some musclewood and American sweetgum are also present.

References

Kelly D. Norris and William R. Graves (2012). A Narrowly Endemic Dirca from Mexico Outperforms Its Broadly Distributed Congener in the Upper Midwest. American Society for Horticultural Science https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI.47.10.1445

NESOM, GUY L., and MARK H. MAYFIELD. “A NEW SPECIES OF DIRCA (THYMELAEACEAE) FROM THE SIERRA OF NORTHEASTERN MEXICO.” SIDA, Contributions to Botany, vol. 16, no. 3, 1995, pp. 459–67, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41967148. Accessed 11 May 2022.