full text available in PDF download below
full text available in PDF download below
Whatever will I do? For thirty years, I have been juggling 3 issues of Castanea at the same time. Our lives—mine and Castanea’s—had become ‘one.’ We ‘mutually benefited’ each other. Castanea published 4 issues each year; maintained its niche and improved its presence and quality. I was able to work at home and raise my daughter, managed the household, and go on impromptu field trips with Larry. The flexibility of this part time position and being my own boss allowed both of us to excel. Through the years, Castanea and I have gotten older but better, weathering a lot of changes.
Do you believe it, I am only Castanea’s third editor. Dr. Earl Core was the first, working for 36 years to establish this journal. Dr. Jessie Clovis continued it for ten more years. I became involved in 1980 when Dr. Jim Matthews felt that new procedures were needed to allow Castanea to have a better presence in the scientific world. We have done that. Now Allen Press will take our journal and promote it into the digital era.
Long before my first issue was printed in June 1982, I was learning the process and editing incoming manuscripts for that issue. Each manuscript was now peer reviewed by at least 2 reviewers and 1 assigned editor. My role was to synchronize all this and field questions from the authors and printer. For the most part this was smooth going but conflicts did happen. My calm presence ‘cooled’ these situations and mediated a solution.
So what are the significant changes for Castanea during these 30 years? Early on we put the Castanea logo on top of the front cover with the contents below. That changed later to a full chestnut logo on the front with the contents on the back cover. Most recently we have had cover art featuring an interesting plant from our region. Our geographic area has changed too. We extend the whole of the Appalachians, not just southern, from East coast to the Mississippi River. The change in our organization’s name reflects that change as well, going from Southern Appalachian Botanical Club to what we really were—the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society.
Under Core and Clovis, both from West Virginia, our journal was published by McClain Printing Company in West Virginia. A few years after I arrived, I petitioned to change to Allen Press out of Lawrence, Kansas. Since they were specializing in scientific publishing, I felt that Castanea would benefit from their expertise. Allen Press was able to accommodate the subsequent changes that we needed, even printing color plates for our authors.
The size of the journal started small with the type running across the page. The journal’s size became larger [this is Castanea, not me! I am the same size as when I started Castanea, just rearranged a bit.]. The size was now 7 3 100 with the print across the page. This increased the words per page about 10–15% and when we went to double columns on a page (a relatively recent change), the words per page increased another 10–15%. Occurring at the same time, the number of pages per issue grew, from 60 pages to 80 pages to 100+ page issues now.
Our quality is top notch. Peer review and the editorial involvement have given us that polish. We are attracting better papers and leading papers that want our regional exposure. Our symposia and Occasional Papers in Eastern Botany enhance our focus and promote the scientific awareness of Castanea. Castanea fits this niche but we do have national and international distribution in readership and author submissions. Field research, systematic and ecological, is one of our key focuses but we have physiological and natural history components and now more laboratory research.
What have been my changes? For one, I can now talk on the phone to anyone. Being shy and inexperienced at the start, with practice and years of experience, I am forthright, upfront, and quick on the phone but yet maintaining a calm, graceful, and cheerful, informative manner. I have toned down my perfectionism—a lot. One can only do so much, go over it so many times, and then you need to let it go. I have learned this and have become quicker but still accurate. Next comes the COMPUTER. In the ‘old days’, we did everything by hand/hardcopy. When I had to learn the computer, I did not know how to turn it on. I only knew how to type on my manual and electric typewriters. Saving the document, emails, attachments, copy and paste. All horrors. However, I did have a very patient and good teacher. When Larry (Mellichamp) realized that I just wanted to turn that thing on, he slowed down and I learned. For years I handled electronic submissions before the journal turned to AllenTrack.
Being Castanea’s memory for these 30 years has been a joy and a hardship. Every 2–3 years I was telling a new president or editor or reviewer about our procedures and methods. Furthermore, I was always reminding someone about deadlines for manuscripts or articles for the president’s message and write ups for the Bartholomew and Windler awards, while under my own deadlines. Here I learned to be more flexible and tolerant. In the end, it will get done. The joy has been keeping Castanea thriving and meeting authors and editors at meetings and on the phone. So, whatever will I do? Feeling good about leaving Castanea stronger, better, and prepared to enter the next phase of its history, I will follow my other passions of traveling the world [Watch out Meg Lowman. Larry and I are thinking of doing the Amazon canopy tour in 2013.] and teaching historic open hearth cookery.
In 2012, my daughter Suzanne and I will cruise to Alaska’s Glacier Bay to observe the glaciers and the whales. Then we go to Italy for the month of October. Suzanne, a young professional potter, will take a ceramic course at La Meridiana. Before that, we will tour the Italian lake area, Verona, and Venice.
Some of you know that I represent a 1795 backcountry housewife and cook on the hearth at President James K. Polk State Historic Site in Pineville, North Carolina. I am also the current ‘‘Queen’’ or chair of the Mecklenburg Historical Association Docents. We are the ones that dress historically and tell the story of the sites. We keep history alive. I have just learned that Queen Charlotte (Charlotte, North Carolina being named for her) was considered the Queen of Botany. She helped the young Kew Gardens get established. So, as I step from the realm of Castanea’s botany, I move into the docent historical realm by being their ‘Botany Queen.’ I do wish Castanea continued success and botanical presence.
—Audrey Mellichamp, Managing Editor, Castanea.
ABSTRACT Conversion to agriculture and plantations, development, and fire suppression have reduced the extent of savannas in the southeastern United States, and there is a need to catalog and classify the remaining savannas for both restoration and resource management purposes. The Big Savannah was a wet savanna in North Carolina that was destroyed in the 1950s, and subsequent vegetation classifications have generally not accommodated well the unique natural plant community of the Big Savannah. Vegetation reminiscent of that described for the Big Savannah was discovered north of the original site and designated as Wells Savannah. To evaluate the uniqueness of the savanna vegetation at Wells Savannah, we compiled a data set from permanent quadrats with information on vegetation and environmental variables from other Outer Coastal Plain savannas to compare with similar data from the natural community at Wells Savannah. We also inventoried an additional 26 quadrats on a tract adjacent to Wells Savannah that had experienced fire suppression. Results from multivariate analyses demonstrated clear differences between the Wells Savannah quadrats and other regional wet savanna quadrats based on both vegetation and soils. A number of species and several soil characteristics (higher clay percentage, and higher available iron and boron) distinguish Wells Savannah from other wet savannas. Although the fire suppressed quadrats near Wells Savannah had lower species richness, typical savanna species such as Ctenium aromaticum and Calamovilfa brevipilis were still present. Further exploration of fire-suppressed tracts in the area may yield more wet savanna inclusions similar to the former Big Savannah.
ABSTRACT Multivariate analysis of vegetation and environmental variables from green pitcher plant (Sarracenia oreophila) bogs in northeast Alabama revealed three communities with unique species compositions and soil characteristics. Discriminant analysis of environmental variables revealed that A-horizon percent N, A and B horizon pH, humus layer thickness, and B-horizon K (kg/ha) were significantly related to the communities. A Quercus rubra, Arundinaria appalachiana, Pinus echinata community was found on upland seepage bogs located exclusively on Lookout Mountain close to the rim of the Little River Canyon and scattered along perennial streams. A Quercus falcata, Diospyros virginiana, Rhododendron canescens community was found on both Lookout and Sand Mountain in flat broad swales bisected by ephemeral streams. A Rhexia virginica, Dichanthelium scoparium, Carex glaucescens community was found primarily on Sand Mountain in open flood prone areas.
ABSTRACT Most typical rock outcrop plants of the eastern United States occur either on calcareous or on non-calcareous outcrops, but not both. Often this is because their growth is inhibited in soil from the non-native substrate, as shown in this study for the granite outcrop endemic sedge Cyperus granitophilus when grown on limestone soil. For those rock outcrop species that can exploit both calcareous and non-calcareous substrates, it might be expected that they would do so by substrate specialization, with each population growing better on its native substrate than the other substrate. However, in most previously tested species, populations from both substrates grow well on the same substrate and both are inhibited on the second substrate. Populations found on the second substrate, though inhibited, are nevertheless able to maintain good health and grow sufficiently to maintain themselves there. In this study we show that the widespread sedge Cyperus aristatus (5C. inflexus), a regular component of limestone, sandstone, granite, chert, and serpentine rock outcrop communities in the eastern United States, exploits both calcareous and non-calcareous substrates by substrate specialization, something previously shown in only one other eastern United States rock outcrop species.
ABSTRACT Forest vegetation near Tallahassee, Florida was inventoried on a former cultivated field, called NB66h, which had been abandoned 43 yr earlier. Subsequently, the site suffered no disturbance and no colonization by alien invasive species. The canopy consisted of pines (Pinus taeda, P. echinata) and hardwoods, primarily Liquidambar styraciflua, Quercus nigra. Most tree species were characteristic of plant communities that historically occurred at lower slope positions in the landscape and not of presettlement upland shortleaf pine-oak-hickory woodland. Offsite species colonized surrounding uplands following abandonment of cotton plantations towards the end of the 19th century. Presettlement vegetation was represented by few species and individuals, and offsite species were abundant in every size class. Plant succession was arrested with little sign of directional development towards a predictable seral endpoint. Hypothesized seral trends towards proposed ‘‘climax’’ forests of magnolia-beech and southern mixed hardwoods were not supported
ABSTRACT Dense stands of Arundinaria species, or canebrakes, once were a dominant landscape feature along floodplains of the southeastern United States. However, human activities have reduced canebrakes to fragmented remnants representing ,2% of their extent prior to European settlement. Canebrake restoration thus is a top priority for preserving and improving wetland biodiversity in the United States. Successful restoration requires an understanding of factors influencing establishment of the two most common United States Arundinaria species; therefore, this greenhouse study examined effects of inundation on A. gigantea and A. tecta. Both Arundinaria species were subjected to 0, 2, 4, or 6 weeks of inundation under long-day, warm temperature growing season conditions. Plant growth, mean net photosynthesis (Pn), and stomatal conductance (Gs) were measured on a weekly basis, and at the conclusion of the experiment, above- and belowground biomass were measured. We found significant correlations of Pn and Gs with duration of flooding and duration of post-inundation recovery, as well as a significant interaction among time, species, and flood duration, with both species responding similarly to flooded conditions. Once flooding was arrested, both Pn and Gs rates were higher in A. tecta than A. gigantea; the same was true for growth rates across the duration of the study. In conclusion, A. tecta appeared to be more flood tolerant than A. gigantea, reflecting habitats in which these species are known to occur. Future canebrake restoration projects may benefit from this information on differential flooding tolerance in selecting restoration sites or restoration species, based on hydrologic conditions.
ABSTRACT Previous research has found significant differences in flowering time between sympatric, non-hybridizing populations of congeners in the genus Gelsemium (Gelsemium sempervirens and G. rankinii). An experimental approach using a common garden, reciprocal transplant experiments, and observations of natural populations were used to test the hypothesis that soil environmental variables (soil moisture and soil temperature) related to habitat specificity of the two species influence differences in flowering phenology. Replicated pairs of both species were planted into a common garden and into wet and dry habitats that typify the two species (dry for earlier flowering G. sempervirens and wet for later flowering G. rankinii). Two sites with sympatric natural populations of both species were also studied for comparison. The number of open flowers was counted every two weeks in 2007 and 2008 in all sites and in 2009 for the reciprocal transplant experiment. Soil moisture and soil temperature varied by site, date, habitat, and species but was not consistently related to flowering phenology across sites or species. Compared to natural conditions, plants in the common garden and experimental transplant populations did not show significant changes in differences in flowering times, suggesting that flowering phenology is under genetic control and is not influenced by soil environmental conditions.
Baccharis glomeruliflora Persoon (ASTERACEAE)— Pender County: collected in the southeastern lower coastal plain of North Carolina, ca. 4.7 air km southeast of Maple Hill, North Carolina. Three medium-sized shrubs (1.5 m in height) were found along the north side of NC 50 in a power line corridor adjacent to pine plantation and nonriverine swamp forest habitats at an elevation of 3.1 m above sea level— 34.637353uN, 77.65285uW; 13 October 2010, J. Taggart SARU 668 with B.L. Wichmann (WNC30927) and 26 October 2010, J. Taggart SARU 669 with B.L. Wichmann (NCU593247, WNC30925, and NCSC130718).
Significance. These collections from the same location represent a new Pender Country record, rediscovery in North Carolina, and northern range extension in the United States for this species which has significantly rareperipheral status (may be changed to state endangered) and SH rank (historical; now likely S1) in North Carolina and G4 global status (Buchanan and Finnegan 2010; Ms. Laura Gadd, Botanist, North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, pers. comm. of 3 May 2011). Previous North Carolina specimens were found in Brunswick (W.W. Ashe and R.K. Godfrey) and New Hanover (W.M. Canby) counties, but prior to 1950 (North Carolina University 2011). This collection site is located 25 km inland from the nearest estuarine shoreline in an area comprised of pine savanna, flatwoods, and swamp forest communities within a mosaic of current and former pine plantations (Taggart 2010).
Cyrtomium fortunei J.Sm. (DRYOPTERIDACEAE)— Hart County: UTM UPS 16S 0590378 4121842 at an elevation of approximately 174 meters, on Western Kentucky University’s Upper Green River Biological Preserve, growing along the Green River in colluvium at the base of a small (approximately 4–5 m), north-facing Mississippian limestone bluff from the St. Genevieve Formation, as well as growing from soil deposits on the outcrop itself, September 15, 2009, Hulsey 28598 (WKU).
Significance. This is a new record for Kentucky and a northward extension of the range of this species in the eastern United States (Campbell and Medley pers. comm., Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993, Jones 2005, Medley 1993). We found four plants of Cyrtomium fortunei with both fertile and non-fertile fronds. Riverfront hardwoods, particularly Acer negundo L., dominated the forest community at the base of the bluff.