The “President’s Message” has evolved to be an end of year communication to the membership. I am pleased to take my turn to report on the state of the Club and matters of concern from the vantage point of the presidency.
The “President’s Message” has evolved to be an end of year communication to the membership. I am pleased to take my turn to report on the state of the Club and matters of concern from the vantage point of the presidency.
The flora of Hardin County comprises 1,126 species, subspecies and varieties in 494 genera and 129 families, representing roughly 40% of Kentucky’s known vascular flora. Of these, 30 are considered rare, threatened, or endangered within Kentucky. About one-third of the flora is extraneous to the lower Ohio Valley and is composed of species with predominantly Appalachian, northern, southern, and Coastal Plain distributions. Twelve species appear to be endemic to or characteristic of the Interior Low Plateaus Province of Kentucky and Tennessee. This floristic diversity is a consequence of geographic location in combination with an edaphically and physiographically diverse environment.
An error in the printing process resulted in the reversing of the photograph for Figure 2 of this manuscript appearing in Volume 56(3):215-219 (1991). The photograph was correctly positioned in the proofs and was accepted by the author and the Managing Editor.
The vascular flora of Wolf Cove and the surrounding Cumberland Plateau in Franklin County, Tennessee, was sampled during two full growing seasons in 1985 and 1986. Eight hundred twelve collections were made comprising 573 species and lesser taxa in 329 genera and 109 families, including 213 county records. The four largest families were the Asteraceae (90 species), Poaceae (41 species), Cyperaceae (39 species), and Fabaceae (29 species). These four families constitute 34.1% of the flora. Twenty-nine species of exotic plants (5.1% of the flora) were collected. Nine taxa are listed as Threatened or Special Concern in Tennessee: Hieracium scabrum, Hydrastis canadensis, Panax quinquefolius, Synandra hispidula, Talinum mengesii/teretifolium, Trichomanes boschianum, Helianthus eggertii, Polymnia laevigata, and Spiranthes ovalis. Two taxa, Helianthus eggertii and Carex purpurifera, are candidates for federal listing (Category 2). Voucher specimens are on deposit at TENN.
Spiraea virginiana Britton is a Southern Appalachian endemic that occurs exclusively in the southern Blue Ridge and Appalachian Plateau physiographic provinces. Although S. virginiana exhibits great phenotypic plasticity, it is allopatric with the taxon it most closely resembles, S. betulifolia Pallas var. corymbosa (Raf.) Wenzig. The two species have several overlapping phenotypic characters and are both quite variable but may be generally distinguished by leaf and flower characters, plant size, habitat, and distribution. Character states and general distribution are given for both species and detailed distribution is given for S. virginiana.
Spiraea virginiana Britton is a clonal shrub with modular growth form. The species has root system and vegetative characteristics that allow it to thrive under appropriate disturbance regimes. The species probably reached optimal population numbers, genetic diversity, and widest distribution during late glacial times when frost churn and increased erosion inhibited arboreal competition. The wide range was probably achieved using sexual reproduction and small wind/water dispersed seeds. As the climate ameliorated, plants became restricted to riverine habitats. This restriction isolated and probably eliminated many genetic individuals, caused increased dependence on vegetative reproduction and restricted population numbers in a wide but discontinuous range. The riverine sites have enough erosion to inhibit arboreal competition and fragment the modular colonies, but deposition patterns suitable for the establishment of vegetative propagules. Human activities have inadvertently maintained the species in several sites by periodic clearing, but human activities are the only documented cause of extirpation.
Two new combinations within the genus Portulaca are proposed. A study of the morphology, geography, and chromosome number indicates that P. coronata Small and P. lanceolata Engelm. in Gray are best treated as subspecies of P. umbraticola Kunth.