Biologists are always in need of taking pictures: to use in lectures and presentations (usually in the form of slides); to record observations in research; and for publication of data. Many biologists take their own slides for use in teaching, and thus photography may become a rewarding artistic expression and hobby as well.
A population of Hydrocotyle bowlesioides Math. & Const. (Apiaceae) has been discovered in Thomasville, Thomas County, Georgia.
Pyrus arbutifolia var. glabra Cronquist, Castanea 14:101 (1949) was described to include glabrous or glabrescent plants of the Red Chokeberry which occur irregularly on the southeast United States coastal plain.
A survey was made of the vascular flora at 36 sites in the area of lower Pool 26, Mississippi and Illinois rivers. A total of 239 taxa representing 73 families was recorded. Thirty-three plants from Jersey, Calhoun, and Madison counties in Illinois not previously listed as occurring in these counties in published material are noted. Boltonia asteroides (L.) L’Her. var. decurrens (Torr. and Gray) Engelm., a nationally threatened species, was found in Illinois, while a plant found in Missouri, Chelone obliqua L. var. speciosa Pennell & Wherry, is listed as a status undetermined species throughout that state.
This well-organized and readable monograph of the tribe Gossypieae (Malvaceae) is the culmination of over 20 years of botanical research by Dr. Paul A. Fryxell, an eminent plant geneticist and taxonomist.
Six white pine species were studied 14 years after planting in Maryland’s western-most Garrett County. Pinus strobus was represented by 11 populations from Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, South Carolina and Quebec. Their survival rates were about similar, from 68% to 94%, but heights were distinctly different, ranging from 95% to 146% of the plantation mean (= 100%). The most outstanding was a population from Ogemaw County, Michigan. Pinus monticola from Idaho showed an adequate survival (65%), but grew slower than most of the sources of P. strobus; as young trees (under 8 years), they resembled well-pruned Christmas trees. Pinus griffithii and P. peuce exhibited poor survival (< 20%); P. ayacahuite and P. lambertiana grew slowly, 70% and 47% of the plantation mean, respectively.
A floristic study of Shiloh National Military Park from April, 1980, to April, 1981, documented the presence of 163 woody plant taxa. Floristic affinities revealed 72 eastern taxa, 64 southern taxa, 9 central taxa, and 18 naturalized taxa. Plant communities are discussed, and the habitats, relative abundances, and geographic affinities are given for each taxon.
An attempt was made to verify the existence of 18 disjunct populations of river birch (Betula nigra L.) displayed on the most current range-wide maps of the species. Communications with numerous botanists and resource managers led to the conclusion that only 4 of the 18 disjunct populations currently exist, and that the bulk of the remaining populations are artifacts arising from horticultural introductions and misidentification. Such overestimates of the occurrence of disjunct populations in widespread tree species of North America is probably common given the extreme difficulties in defining distributional limits.
Analysis of some Virginia species with SW-NE distributional patterns shows they are western species which migrated northeastward during the Holocene, and this group is but a small sample of an important western element in the flora of eastern North America.
Cyperus difformis L. (Cyperaceae), one of the world’s worst weeds, appears to be extending its range in the southeastern United States. Since its discovery in southeastern Virginia in 1934, presence of C. difformis in ten counties or parishes in five southeastern states has been documented. It has occurred in at least eight habitat types and long distance dispersal by bird appears probable.