A list of vascular plant taxa from Baxter County, Arkansas is reported. It is based upon field, herbarium, and literature surveys conducted from 1987 through 1992. One thousand sixty-nine vascular plant taxa are listed, including five new state records. Thus, Baxter County is now floristically the fourth richest county known in Arkansas. Ecological data are given for each taxon, and historical, physiographical, climatic, and ecological data on Baxter County are presented.
We examined effects of fire on nutrient concentrations and standing crops in Juncus roemerianus and Spartina bakeri marshes by sampling biomass from 25 plots (0.25 m2) in each marsh before and one year after a fire, separating samples by taxon and live or standing dead categories, and analyzing for total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), P, K, Ca, and Mg. Nitrogen concentrations were lower in all biomass types one year after burning. Phosphorus concentrations increased in live Spartina, decreased in live Juncus and live Sagittaria in the Juncus marsh, and were unchanged in other types; however, the ratio of P to N increased in all live biomass types. Concentrations of K declined or remained unchanged. Calcium concentrations increased in Juncus and Spartina. Magnesium concentrations decreased in live and dead Juncus (Juncus marsh), but increased in live Sagittaria (Juncus marsh), dead Sagittaria (Spartina marsh), and live Spartina. Live biomass generally had higher concentrations of N, P, and K but lower levels of Ca than dead biomass. Standing crops of all nutrients were much lower than one year after fire than preburn. Our results differ from the increases in many tissue nutrients recorded soon after fire in other studies. Nutrient concentrations often decline with tissue age; thus, concentrations one year postburn may have differed from those immediately postburn. The absence of an increase in available soil N until six months postburn may have limited N concentrations in regrowing biomass. Standing crops of biomass and nutrients did not reestablish preburn levels in these marshes in one year.
The vascular flora of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, Charleston County, South Carolina, was sampled one growing season after being struck by Hurricane Hugo. The combined flora of both sites (ca. 27 ha) consists of 223 species, 161 genera, and 63 families; 69 species occur at Fort Sumter and 218 species occur at Fort Moultrie, which is larger and consists of more varied habitats. The annotated checklist includes the locality and habitat in which each species occurs, frequency of occurrence, new County records, and pertinent synonyms.
Cedar glade, limestone barren, and glade woodland communities are reported from limestone terranes in the Ridge and Valley of northeastern West Virginia. The cedar glade communities are dominated by Bouteloua curtipendula, Solidago arguta var. harrisii, Paronychia virginica, and Monarda fistulosa var. brevis, limestone barren communities by Bouteloua, Hystrix patula, and Schizachyrium scoparius, and glade woodlands by Juniperus virginiana, Quercus muehlenbergii, and Cercis canadensis. Drought stress appears to play a role in determining the vegetation of these areas. The flora of these three communities consists of 202 known species, including 24 considered to be rare in West Virginia and eight Appalachian shale barren endemics. Monarda fistulosa var. brevis appears to be endemic to cedar glades, limestone barrens, glade woodlands and dry limestone cliffs of West Virginia and Virginia. Six other species are almost completely restricted in West Virginia to these communities; Ophioglossum engelmannii and Senecio plattensis are reported from West Virginia for the first time. The unique flora of these communities in West Virginia suggests that they apparently originated independently of cedar glade communities of the Interior Low Plateaus.
Every once and a while botanists are approached about advice on selecting landscape plants for colleagues, neighbors or developers. After all, we are trained to be knowledgeable about plants, right? In my experience, botanists may well have the worst looking lawn in the neighborhood, at least mine is. But it is easy to do better with selecting suitable, low maintenance trees and shrubs for the residential landscape.
Passiflora lutea L. was “rediscovered” in Delaware at two sites during the 1991 field season. A check of herbaria for collections of this species uncovered two Delaware voucher specimens (GH, MO), without locality data, from the first half of the nineteenth century.
Noteworthy Collections: Arkansas