This is another very fine Peterson Guide; the latest in the series of now 46 (actually 48). As the title implies, there are two distinct parts with only an introductory note by Roger Tory Peterson. He states that the intent of this guide is to learn how to avoid the potential dangers from poisonous animals and plants by learning how to identify them, and in the case of animals, learning of their habits and habitats.
Noteworthy Collections: Florida and South Carolina
Climbing plants often fail to reach the canopy and reproductive maturity because they fail to locate appropriate structures on which to climb (Putz 1984). Only species with adhesive tendrils or adventitious roots, i.e., bole climbers, can directly ascend trees in excess of 30-40 cm dbh (stem diameter at breast height (1.4 m)); tendril climbers and twiners, in particular, are relegated to support structures of small diameter (e.g., Putz and Holbrook 1991).
While searching for another reference, I noted with surprise the original publication of Hypericum buckleii M. A. Curtis (1843). This is the binomial of a shrubby endemic of the Blue Ridge Mountains of southeastern North Carolina (Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Transylvania Counties) and adjacent South Carolina (Greenville) and Georgia (Rabun, Towns and Union Counties). The original spelling was in sharp contrast to the all but universal appearance of the epithet thereafter: buckleyi as demonstrated by the sampling of authors in the following list: Chapman (1860), Coulter (1886), Small (1903 and 1933), Peattie (1929), Svenson (1940), Rehder (1949), Radford et al. (1968), Wood and Adams (1976), Duncan and Kartesz (1981), Jones and Coile (1988), Wofford (1989) and Kartesz (1994). I have encountered only one author, Coulter (1897), who took up the orthography buckleii as originally published by Curtis. And as noted above Coulter had earlier (1886) adopted H. buckleyi.
A floristic inventory was documented for O’Leno State Park and the northeastern portion of River Rise State Preserve, located in Alachua and Columbia Counties, Florida. Notes on climate, physical geography, and human history are given as an introduction to a discussion of the plant communities. Communities recognized within the 923.6 ha site include mesic hammock with limestone sinks, floodplain forests and swamps, marshes, scrubby flatwoods, xerophytic oak scrub, sandhill, aquatic vegetation of rivers, ponds and lakes, and old field or ruderal communities. Species, totaling 540 and representing 334 genera in 113 families, appear in an annotated list.
Euthamia (2 species, 3 varieties) and Solidago (29 species, 20 infraspecific taxa) treated floristically as a contribution toward a flora of Virginia. Keys to genera, species,and infraspecific taxa are presented: descriptions, flowering time, and ecological data for each taxon are included. Geographical distributions are mapped, and species known to be rare in Virginia are indicated.
A former chestnut-dominated forest community on the NW-facing slope of Bald Knob on Salt Pond Mountain in southwestern Virginia has been studied previously in 1932 and 1982/83. In the present study, short-term changes in the composition of the tree (stems ≥10 cm DBH) and small tree (stems ≥2.5 cm but <10 cm DBH) strata since 1983 were assessed and growth-trend patterns in red oak (Quercus rubra L.) following the elimination of chestnut from the canopy by chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica [Murr.] Barr) were examined. During the past decade, the composition of the canopy has changed very little relative to the dramatic changes of the previous 50 years. Analysis of basal area increment growth patterns of 26 red oaks at least 79 years old clearly shows a dramatic release that began in the mid-1920s.
A forest dominated by chestnut oak and scarlet oak was first sampled in 1971. In 1994 it was resampled to measure compositional changes. Total density of trees decreased 6% and total basal area increased 11 %. These changes were small and not significant. Relative importance of the various species, however, changed markedly. Chestnut oak remained dominant, but scarlet oak was replaced by red maple as second dominant. In 1971 scarlet oak composed 17% of stand density and 48% of basal area. In 1994 it had declined to 3% of density and 10% of basal area. Flowering dogwood was moderately abundant in 1971, but in 1994 it had declined to one-fifth its former density. Sapling density increased due to increases in densities of red maple and white pine. White pine, present only as a few seedlings in 1971, composed 34% of sapling density in 1994. The forest, now an oak-maple community, is developing toward an oak-maple-pine community, one similar to a forest that occupied the site over 150 years ago.
Effects of clear-cutting on litter dry mass, litter depth, and litter moisture were studied on two sites near Highlands, North Carolina, in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains from 1985-87 in order to better understand changes in litter parameters and to help explain disappearances of terrestrial salamanders of the genus Plethodon from clear-cuts. Litter dry mass and litter depth decreased significantly after clear-cutting on both sites while litter moisture was reduced significantly at one site but not at the other. Since terrestrial salamanders depend on a moist environment for dermal respiration and on litter as their primary foraging area, reductions in litter mass, depth and moisture may contribute to salamander disappearance from clear-cuts after timber harvest.