On This Page
• Overview
• Distribution

  Additional Information

• ECOS Profile (regulatory documents, recovery plan)
• Center for Plant Conservation
• NJDEP Element Stewardship Abstract

Overview

A perennial member of the lily family, bog asphodel grows 10 to 15 inches high from narrow, basal leaves. The flowering stem (culm) has few, small leaves, and is topped by a 1 to 2-inch long cluster (raceme) of bright, yellow flowers that produce reddish-brown seed capsules in the fall. Bog asphodel flowers in late June through July, and the racemes may persist for one or two years, becoming straw-colored to gray.

The Pinelands region of New Jersey is the global stronghold for bog asphodel. This species occurs in open bogs, wet savannahs, lowland oxbow meanders, iron ore streamlet seeps, and sunny borders of Atlantic white-cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) swamps. Bog asphodel often forms clumps in mucky soil along small channels of cold seepage water. The species occurs in areas influenced by slow-moving groundwater, and cannot tolerate heavy shade or extended periods of flooding or desiccation.

Threats to bog asphodel include long-term hydrologic change, habitat loss, and natural vegetational succession. Hydrologic change can result from development, dam-building by people or beavers (Castor canadensis), and the conversion of swamps to cranberry bogs.

Candidate species are species that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has determined warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act and await formal listing. Although these species receive no substantive or procedural protection under the Endangered Species Act until formal listing, the Service encourages consideration of candidate species in project planning.

Distribution

Distribution in New Jersey: Bog Asphodel is currently known to occur in Ocean, Burlington, and Atlantic Counties. See Federally Listed Species Occurrences by Municipality and County [PDF].