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About Us < Features < Pool Sprite
Dr. Eloise Carter, professor of biology at Oxford College of Emory University and William Murdy, former dean at Oxford College, in their definitive Guide to the Plants of Granite Outcrops, profiled a rare little flower, Amphianthus pusillus, that is an excellent example of species envisioned by Georgia's State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP), or Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS), a strategic plan to counter the threats to wildlife caused by population growth and land conversion. — Ed. Note.
The Pool Sprite is a rare species and is listed on both state and federal registers as threatened. It is wholly confined to granite outcrops. The Pool Sprite is an aquatic annual that completes its life cycle in shallow outcrop pools in winter and spring. It consists of a submerged rosette of small lance-shaped leaves and paired floating leaves borne on long, delicate stems. It bears two kinds two kinds of flowers. Tiny white solitary flowers bloom between the paired leaves above the water, and self-fertilizing flowers that never open are borne by the submerged rosette.
Occurrence: In shallow soil in pools that hold water for several months of the year. The population exists as dormant seeds most of the year, from the time the pools dry up in mid to late spring and until they reform
in winter.
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