Volume 72 — Issue 3 (Sep 2007)

Pennsylvania, Dodecatheon inhabits upland woods and wooded rock outcrops in the Potomac and Susquehanna watersheds, respectively. We marked 60 randomly selected plants in each of six Potomac and eight Susquehanna populations. We assessed 20 characters in these plants in flower and fruit to clarify whether they represent D. meadia or D. amethystinum, both of which had been reported for Pennsylvania. The populations differ, often significantly, in the means of all characters; but they overlap in the ranges. For example, corolla color varies from dark to pale pink in all populations. The Potomac population means are greater than the Susquehanna means in scape dimensions, flower number, floral calyx lobe length, anther length, and capsule wall thickness. In the Potomac populations, mean capsule wall thickness is intermediate between the ranges reported by previous authors for the two species. In the Susquehanna populations, this feature resembles the values reported for D. amethystinum.

Physaria ludoviciana (Brassicaceae) is rare in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Environmental effects on floral development are unclear. Both self-compatibility and self incompatibility occur within Physaria species. Objectives were to describe flowers, to determine how photoperiod affects flower development, and to predict whether flowers are self-compatible or self-incompatible. For photoperiods, greenhouse-grown plants were placed in either 16 or 8 hr photoperiods. Inflorescences and open flowers were counted weekly. For pollination, flowers were self-pollinated or cross-pollinated. Plants developed inflorescences after 20 and 28 d in long and short days, respectively. Inflorescences/plant increased for both photoperiods throughout the study. In short days, plants produced more inflorescences (10.8/plant) than in long days (7.1/plant). Anthesis started at 48 and 56 d for long and short days, respectively. Blooming peaked at 83 d (4.9 flowers/plant/day) for long days, and at 98 d (3.5 flowers/plant/day) for short days. Cross-pollinated flowers produced fruits, while self-pollinated ones did not.

The name Quercus sinuata, published by Thomas Walter in 1788, has been interpreted to apply to some species of oak native to the southeastern United States, most often the Bluff Oak (Q. austrina Small). Inspection of the vegetation in the immediate vicinity of Walter’s North Carolina homesite disclosed no Bluff Oak, but did reveal several trees that well matched Walter’s description. Specimens from these trees have been identified as the hybrid of the Southern Red Oak (Q. falcata Michx.) and the Willow Oak (Q. phellos L.), both of which were found at the same location. To provide stability to the name Q. sinuata, a neotype has been selected.

Angus K. Gholson, Jr. of Chattahoochee, Florida received the 2007 Elizabeth Ann Bartholomew Award at the annual meeting of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society at the University of South Carolina on April 20, 2007.

Powhatan County is a largely rural county of the Virginia piedmont currently experiencing exurban development pressure. Commercial pine forests occupy much of the land area; most natural vegetation occurs in various hardwood forests. Plant life is supported largely by soils derived from Proterozoic to Paleozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks, soils developed over Triassic basins, and riparian soils associated with the James and Appomattox Rivers. The annotated checklist is based on new collections gathered between September 2003 and August 2005, supplemented with records from regional herbaria and the Atlas of the Virginia Flora. Field work sampled at least 12 distinct community groups recognized in Virginia. The checklist contains 1020 taxa (1013 species, 515 genera, and 146 families). Twenty-one percent of the species are naturalized introductions. Twenty five species (2.5% of the total) are of conservation concern, and 118 collections (12% of the total) represent new records for Powhatan County.

The 17th annual Richard and Winnie Windler Award has been presented to Matthew Sewell and Michael A. Vincent for their paper “Biosystematics of the Phacelia ranunculacea Complex (Hydrophyllaceae)” in Castanea 71:192-209. This award is given annually for the best paper in plant systematics, taxonomy, or floristics published in Castanea the preceding year.

This much-awaited volume follows the publication of Volume 1 in 1999, which treated the ferns, gymnosperms, and monocots of Missouri. The first volume, with its extensive introductory material and updated taxonomy, provided a model for a modern state flora, one that has influenced flora-writers in other states.

In the fall of 2000, a ground fire burned much of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area, North Carolina, providing an opportunity to study the effects of fire on an oak-pine forest that had not been burned in 50 years. There was no immediate overstory mortality in our study plots. Most aboveground stems of Kalmia latifolia were killed back, but most survived and subsequently re-sprouted. Fire reduced surface organic horizons by nearly 50%, and increased light penetration- 15%, resulting in greater soil temperature extremes. Fire increased species richness in the herb layer and allowed establishment of pine seedlings and also the exotic invasive tree species Paulownia tomentosa. Rates of soil respiration and litter decomposition were significantly lower in burned plots one year post-fire. Changes in the microenvironment in the lower strata following fire were caused primarily by the disappearance of the Kalmia canopy. This temporary loss of the shrub layer appeared to influence composition of the ground layer as well as fostering the re-accumulation of surface soil carbon via reduced litter decay.