More info for the terms: cover, density, facultative wetland species, frequency, hardwood, marsh, peat, tree, xeric
Moneywort establishes on lowland sites with a range of soil and climatic conditions. Moneywort occurs in full sun to full shade (see Shade tolerance) [36,113]. It commonly establishes on disturbed sites, though it may occur in relatively undisturbed native plant communities. A fact sheet reported that sites most vulnerable to moneywort establishment included floodplain forests and wetlands [20,61]. See Habitat Types and Plant Communities for detailed descriptions of some plant communities where moneywort occurs.
Soils: Moneywort grows best in moderately acidic to neutral [110], poorly drained soils [36,45,55,105].
Texture: Moneywort occurs in clays [16,55,93], silts [79,114], silt loams [44], sandy loams [2,41,42,44,93], loams, loamy sands [2], and sands [2,76,93]. Moneywort may also occur in areas dominated by boulders, stones, cobbles, or gravels [75,76,93].
Photo courtesy of Chris Evans, River to River CWMA, Bugwood.org
pH: Moneywort occurs in soils with pH ranging from 4.0 to 7.2 [2,41,44,110] but grows best in moderately acidic to neutral soils [110]. Along ditch banks in peat areas in its native range in the western Netherlands, moneywort cover and frequency were greater in moderately acidic to neutral (5.6-7.2 pH) soils (0.65% cover; 63% frequency) than in extremely acidic to strongly acidic (4.0-5.5 pH) soils (0.25% cover; 28% frequency) [110].
Soil fertility: Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for plant growth. Since fire may result in substantial short- and long-term changes in availability of these nutrients (see [48] for a review), knowledge of moneywort's nitrogen and phosphorus requirements may yield important information regarding its potential for postfire establishment and spread. According to reviews, moneywort grows better in fertile soils [23,36]. In eastern cottonwood/black willow floodplain forests in Wisconsin, moneywort occurred in soils with a wide range of total nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, but it was most frequent in soils with the highest levels of these nutrients [2]. In contrast, in 28 restored and created wetlands throughout Illinois, moneywort decreased with increased nitrogen availability and also with wetland size (R²adj=0.21) [62]. Along ditch banks in peat areas in its native range in the western Netherlands, moneywort cover was greater in soils with low levels of applied nitrogen (0-250 kg/ha/year) (0.50% cover; 52% frequency) than in those with high levels of applied nitrogen (250-500 kg/ha/year) (0.33% cover; 26% frequency) [110]. In a peat moor in Somerset, England, moneywort showed a negative linear trend with increased nitrogen availability (P<0.05). Moneywort may have declined with increased nitrogen because of shading by tall grasses. The authors stated that moneywort is usually absent from areas with high nitrogen availability [67]. Moneywort is endomycorrhizal, and symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizae increased resource uptake, growth, and flowering in moneywort in greenhouse experiments [35].
Moisture: Moneywort is most common on poorly drained, intermittently flooded soils (e.g., [41,42]). It also grows in shallow water and wet soil (e.g., [5,36,97]) and in dry soil (e.g., [97]). Along New River Gorge National River, moneywort occurred in wetlands, in areas frequently flooded during high water, in areas flooded occasionally, and in xeric communities [97]. Moneywort was considered an obligate wetland species in California and the Northeast and Central Plains regions of the United States and a facultative wetland species in the Southeast, North-central, and Northwest regions. Obligate species were those that occurred in wetlands >99% of the time, and facultative species were those that usually occurred in wetlands (67-99% of the time) but occasionally occurred in nonwetland habitats [82].
Moneywort appears to prefer intermittently flooded areas. In its native range in northeastern France, moneywort was found in periodically flooded (<1 month/year), occasionally flooded (1-3 months/year), and frequently flooded (>4 months/year) alluvial meadows, but was most frequent in occasionally flooded meadows [112]. In a sugar maple floodplain forest in Illinois, most moneywort plants occurred within 1.0 foot (0.3 m) of a streambank where flooding occurred frequently (flooded during 20% of observations), but plants also occurred as far away as 3.9 feet (1.2 m) from the streambank, where flooding occurred infrequently (5% of observations). Moneywort was absent from areas at greater distances from the streambank that rarely flooded (≤3% of observations) [6]. Along Little Otter Creek in Vermont, moneywort grew in poorly drained soils that were flooded each spring but did not grow in soils flooded for longer periods. Moneywort was absent from a narrow-leaved cattail (Typha angustifolia) marsh 16 feet (5 m) from the creek bank where soils were flooded or saturated in all but 1 to 2 months each year. At 33 feet (10 m) from the creek bank, the marsh abruptly transitioned into an open-canopy silver maple-swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor)-green ash forest with a shrubby understory. At greater distances from the creek bank, the tree canopy became more closed, the overstory trees became more diverse, flooding only occurred in spring, and moneywort became more common. It occurred with a density of 1,000 stems/ha at 49 feet (15 m) from the creek bank but 47,000 stems/ha at 164 feet (50 m) from the creek bank. At about 230 feet (70 m) from the creek bank, the forest transitioned to a closed-canopy yellow birch-sugar maple-American beech forest, and at 330 feet (100 m) from the creek bank moneywort density declined to 40,000 stems/ha [42]. In Stewart County, Tennessee, moneywort occurred in bottomland hardwood forests with soils that were generally saturated with water from winter to early summer [13].
Moneywort infrequently occurs in dry soils. In the Willamette Valley near west Eugene, Oregon, moneywort occurred in a seasonally flooded wetland prairie where standing water often occurred from November to April due to a shallow clay layer that impeded drainage. In the summer, soils dried out and became hard and deeply cracked, but moneywort survived to the end of the 3-year study [16]. Along the New River Gorge National River, moneywort occurred in Virginia pine-eastern redcedar-post oak woodland, a xeric community with exposed sandstone bedrock and an open canopy [97]. In Guthrie County, Iowa, moneywort occurred in dry and wet closed-canopy hardwood floodplain forests [27].
Climate: Moneywort occurs in temperate climates. As of this writing (2011), little is known about how climate affects moneywort distribution.
Average maximum and minimum temperatures and average annual precipitation of some sites with moneywort in North America Location Average annual temperatures (°C) Average annual precipitation (mm) Minimum Maximum Alexander County, Illinois 10.1 19.4 1,197 [5] Washington, DC 3.4 31.2 988 [24] Prince Georges and Charles counties, Maryland 5.9 19.6 1,144 [94] Stewart County, Tennessee 2.6 25.4 1,268 [13]
In its native range in northeastern France, average annual rainfall was 36 inches (904 mm) and average annual temperature was 48.4 °F (9.1 °C) [112].
Elevation: In North America, moneywort occurs from sea level to at least 5,400 feet (1,600 m) [13,46,65,81]. Moneywort occurs from sea level to 597 feet (182 m) in its native range in the British Isles [23].
Topography: Moneywort generally occurs on level to gently sloping topography (e.g., [13,94,115]).