Volume 51 – Issue 2 (Jun 1986)

The Southern Appalachian Botanical Club established the Elizabeth Ann (Betty) Bartholomew Award for botanical public service at its yearly meeting in Columbia, South Carolina in April 1986. This award will be presented annually to a plant biologist who has made significant contributions in the area of public service for botany.

Cornus florida L. (flowering dogwood) is a widespread, often abundant understory tree in most deciduous and mixed forest types of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada.

In his revision of the genus Onosmodium, Das (1965) does not include the southeastern United States within the range of the primarily Great Plains taxon O. molle Michx. subsp. occidentale (Mack.) Cochrane (= O. occidentale Mack., O. molle Michx. var. occidentale Johnst.).

Carex roanensis F.J. Hermann was rediscovered near Ernestville, Unicoi County, Tennessee. The habitat was a gneiss ledge overlain with rich soil on a steep hardwood slope near Fagus and Betula trees. Specimens (Churchill 85132; 85221) have been deposited at the National, Michigan State, University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt herbaria.

Eight species of Phlox occur in the Ohio flora: P. divaricata, P. glaberrima var. triflora, P. latifolia, P. maculata, P. paniculata, P. pilosa, P. stolonifera, and P. subulata var. subulata and var. brittonii. Phlox glaberrima var. glaberrima (incl. var. melampyrifolia) and var. interior are excluded from the state’s flora.

Floristic data and county dot distribution maps are presented for eight species of the Polygalaceae in the Ohio flora. Evidence of rarity in the state for five species is presented. Taxonomic and nomenclatural problems for five species are discussed.

Distributional and habitat data are presented for sixteen taxa of vascular plants from the Appalachian Plateau and Ridge and Valley Provinces of the state of Maryland. Five of these taxa are reported for the first time from Maryland: Helianthus laevigatus, Juncus articulatus, Solidago curtisii, Viola rostrata X V. striata, and the Vittaria gametophyte. Five species currently are listed as rare or endangered in Maryland: Cyperus lancastriensis, Dryopteris campyloptera, Epilobium leptophyllum, Lemna trisulca, and Poa alsodes. Information is provided for four other significant indigenous taxa: Aconitum uncinatum, Carex debilis var. rudgei, Carex digitalis, and Solidago arguta var. harrisii. The occurrence of three non-indigenous species is discussed: Arthraxon hispidus, Microstegium vimineum, and Veronica chamaedrys. Suggestions are made for future revisions of Maryland’s list of rare and endangered species.

A survey of the vascular flora of the Barataria Basin, an interdistributary coastal basin in the Mississippi deltaic plain, contains six types of vegetative communities: bottomland hardwood forest, swamp, freshwater marsh, brackish marsh, salt marsh, and successional types of disturbed areas. The survey resulted in a vascular plant of 113 families, 313 genera, and 523 species.

Paynes Prairie State Preserve is located in north-central peninsular Florida, south of Gainesville, in Alachua County. The plant communities of the basin form a diverse and fluctuating mosaic, and are typical of the freshwater marshes and prairies of north-central Florida. The hammock adjacent to Alachua Sink contains numerous sinkholes, is rich in species, and shows little evidence of human or natural disturbance. A taxonomic study of the vascular flora was conducted on the 5600 ha basin and the 10.4 ha hammock. Collections were made from April 1981 to October 1982 and the names are compiled in an annotated list which contains 422 species (423 taxa) representing 108 families. Range extensions are noted for five species occurring on the basin, and the newly described Forestiera godfreyi is reported from the hammock. The plant communities of the basin are also described with respect to floristics, physiognomy, and length of inundation.

The discovery, geographic extent, and growth characteristics of a triploid, yellow-flowered Erythronium are reported. The morphology, ecology, and life cycle of the triploid are indistinguishable from Erythronium rostratum, a diploid species that bounds it on three sides. The triploid occurs at the western margin of the range of Erythronium rostratum, and is the predominant form across an eight-county region in northwestern Arkansas, northeastern Oklahoma, and southwestern Missouri. Populations of diploids and triploids share low frequencies of flowering individuals and aggressive vegetative reproduction. Triploids show reduced pollen fertility and seed production compared to the diploid. Identifiable mitotic chromosomes occur as pairs in the diploid and sets of three in the triploid. An autotriploid origin in southeastern Washington or southwestern Madison counties, Arkansas, is proposed.