Volume 66 — Issue 4 (Dec 2001)

The Waterloo Wildlife Research Station (WWRS) is a 505 ha state-owned research area located in the mixed mesophytic forest region of unglaciated southeastern Ohio. The vascular flora of WVVRS was inventoried from March 1997 to October 1999. The objectives of this study were to survey the composition and distribution of native and non-native plant species across natural and managed habitats at WWRS and to document the presence of threatened and endangered species. A total of 559 species in 323 genera and 109 families were located within seven plant community types. This survey adds 241 new species to a 1955 floristic survey of WWRS, resulting in 655 species in 362 genera and 114 families. This total includes two state endangered, two state threatened, and six potentially threatened species. Twenty percent of the species are non-native to the eastern United States, occurring primarily in anthropogenically disturbed habitats.

Two disjunct populations of Pellaea wrightiana Hooker occur in North Carolina. The initial 1956 discovery substantiated its taxonomic position as an allotetraploid between P. longimucronata Hooker (=P. truncata Goodding) and diploid P. ternifolia (Cav.) Link. An allozyme survey revealed no genetic variation either between or within the two North Carolina populations suggesting a single dispersal event from the southwestern United States primary range. A third eastern population of P. wrightiana was recently re-ported from Pickens County, South Carolina. Morphological comparisons of pinnae from Pickens County material to P. wrightiana and P. ternifolia from both North Carolina and the southwestern United States indicate that the Pickens County entity is actually P. ternifolia ssp. arizonica Windham, and a new record for eastern North America. This brings the number of Pellaea species occurring in the Carolinas to three. A key for their identification is provided.

The vascular flora of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Murray County, Oklahoma, was inventoried. The study area is located in the Arbuckle Mountains physiographic region of Oklahoma. The geology of this region is composed of limestone and conglomerate rocks which is unique to the predominantly sandstone surface geology of central Oklahoma. A total of 582 taxa of vascular plants in 358 genera and 104 families was verified in the present study, resulting in a list of 717 taxa when combined with results from previous studies. No federally listed or endangered species were encountered, ten species tracked by the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory were present. Comparisons to previous floristic surveys were made and descriptions of the major vegetation associations were provided.

Canada thistle, Cirsium arvense, is a noxious weed in Tennessee, where it poses a significant threat to some of the state’s agricultural and natural areas. Tennessee represents part of the southern edge of the distribution of Canada thistle in North America. Because highways serve as possible corridors for the spread of exotic and invasive species, the interstate highway system was monitored throughout Tennessee in 1997 and 1998 for Canada thistle. This exotic plant species was found at nine of 229 sampling sites in three of 47 Tennessee counties. Six sites were located near the state’s northern border with Kentucky in Campbell County; two sites were located in Washington County in upper eastern Tennessee; and one site was located in middle Tennessee in the Western Highland Rim region in Hickman County, the westernmost occurrence of Canada thistle in the state. The occurrences of this plant species in Campbell, Hickman, and Washington Counties represent new documented county records. Each of these Canada thistle sites occurred within the <190 day frost-free zone in Tennessee and the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6. Each Tennessee county with a previous report of Canada thistle is at least partially included in the 190 day frost-free zone or Zone 6. Since its discovery in Tennessee in 1948, Canada thistle has only spread to a new county in the state approximately every five to seven years, which may be a result of climatic factors.

A survey of the vascular flora of the Ech Lake region was conducted from February 1997 through December 1998. Ech Lake is located in the west-central section of Dale County, Alabama, on the Fort Rucker Army Installation. The study site comprised 162 ha of mostly forested, gently sloping land. A 2.0 ha lake is centrally located in the study area. Nine major habitats, including mesic hardwoods, xeric hardwoods, mixed pine-hardwoods, pine plantation, fields, floodplains, shorelines, grassy areas, and roadsides were found to occur at the study site. Collections were made twice weekly from April through November and once each week from December through March. The 507 species and varieties representing 289 genera and 102 families found to occur at the Ech Lake study area are presented in an annotated checklist.

An exceptionally dry growing season during 1999 exposed extensive mud flats at Cave Run Lake, a flood-control reservoir in northeast Kentucky. We compared the mud flat flora in 1999 to the shoreline flora assessed in the preceding year. Excluding trees and shrubs, there were 243 plant species. Sixty-four species were found only on mud flats, 82 were only on frequently flooded shorelines, and 14 were only on infrequently flooded shorelines. As flood frequency increased, the percentage of annual species increased from 11% to 41%. Although many species found on mud flats were also found on frequently flooded shorelines (coefficient of similarity = 0.39), the highest coefficient of similarity (0.40) was calculated for another mud flat on the Scioto River ca. 90 km from Cave Run Lake. This suggests that reservoir sediments may accumulate seeds from both local and regional floras.

A three-year floristic analysis of the mosses of Dysart Woods, an old-growth forest in Belmont County, Ohio, led to the collection of 39 taxa distributed among 17 families and 28 genera. Species and frequency of occurrence varied considerably between slope aspect (north vs. south) and among substrate types. Six and 13 species were collected exclusively from the north- and south-facing slopes, respectively, and 20 species were common to both slope aspects. Woody debris was the most floristically diverse substrate on north-facing slopes (65% of species) while woody debris and exposed soil on a hiking trail were equally important habitats on south-facing slopes (39 and 33% of species, respectively). Twenty of the species collected at Dysart Woods represent new reports for Belmont County. The collections from this study bring the number of families, genera, and species of Belmont County to 29, 57, and 82, respectively.

Questions, Challenges, Reflections, Opportunities—All these abound for those of us involved in the natural sciences and they relate to the vegetation encompassed by the major thrust of our Society. While certainly recognizing these topics as too broad a task to adequately cover in a short message with the limited ability of this writer, I, never-the-less, would like to ask that the readers, subscribers, and contributors to SABS consider a few items.