The video is four minutes long. Great things on the horizon to protect our native orchids.
Archive for the ‘Plant Distribution’ category
Video: Learn About the North American Orchid Conservation Center
December 10, 2012New Tree ID Videos Available from SUNY ESF
August 3, 2012Folks interested in trees,
Christopher Baycura (ITS office at ESF) and I recently added 35 tree vignettes to this YouTube site:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBE1197A3397CAE00&feature=plcp
for a total of 135 tree species covered, typically in about 2 minute HD videos that briefly summarize how to identify each tree, its ecological characteristics, importance, and whatever else came to mind. The list of native and non-native trees covered is attached. We’ve covered most of the trees that one would encounter in the woods or in landscapes in upstate NY and throughout the Northeast, and all the trees covered in my dendrology course that are cold hardy in CNY (many western US tree species). These vignettes are also all available for free on i-Tunes. Please feel free to share this information and link to others who might be interested.
Don Leopold
Learn New York’s Trees, Shrubs, and Vines at Landis Arboretum’s New Native Plant Collection
March 23, 2012Landis Arboretum, high on a hilltop above the Village of Esperance in Schoharie County, is the best place to see New York’s native trees, shrubs, and vines thanks to the hard work of Ed Miller, volunteer curator of the native plant collection. At last count, Ed had planted well over 200 species, omitting noxious, alpine, and rare and endangered plants as well as many from the coastal plain that wouldn’t grow well there. Even so, there are species like tupelo, red bud, cucumber magnolia, and persimmon that seem to be doing well and the warming climate doesn’t hurt either. Some northern species like bog birch and balsam popular are doing well too. Not all species thrive the first time and some have had to be replanted like the sweet birches and witch hobble.
The garden's Willow Pond Trail leads to Ed's Native Plant Collection. This visit took place in early December 2011.
Following a lead from Kew Gardens in England, they planted each species with its family members. This makes it possible for serious students to easily compare the details of closely related plants. For instance, all 12 species of native oaks are in one area, all six species of maple in another, and all five birches in still another. Other families are similarly grouped.
This area is where all the members of the sumac family can be found.
Since not all plants of the same family like the same conditions, there are areas that feature plants that like the same habitat, like sun, shade and wetlands. Many of the planting areas have mailboxes that contain a laminated map showing where each species is planted. The other side of the map tells something about the family or the local habitat.
Ed pulls a map from one of the discovery mailboxes in the open sunny habitat.
One of the most popular sites along the the native plant trail is the Bog Garden. It provides a home for trees and shrubs of northern acid bogs and its log structure can be seen from the Landis barn as you approach from the main entrance. Its a great chance to see these plants up close from a habitat that is often difficult to access.
From the barn, head east to the wooden bog garden. You may find Ed there to greet you!
Now is a great time to visit the garden to see the early flowers of many of the woodies, especially the overlooked wind-pollinated trees. The native plant trail is an excellent teaching tool and an invaluable resource for learning the woody plants of New York. Come visit soon!
In this area you will find the native dogwoods grouped together.
Another good time to visit will be the spring book and plant sale on May 19th, 10am to 4pm. See their website calendar for details.
Carex aggregata Rediscovered in New York
February 12, 2012By Steve Young, NY Natural Heritage Program
In 2008 Heather Liljengren and Camille Joseph, staff members of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center in Staten Island, were collecting graminoids for seed preservation in Inwood Hill Park on the northern tip of Manhattan Island during the last week of May. They noticed a sedge that looked different and collected it to send off to Dr. Rob Naczi, a sedge expert at the New York Botanical Garden, for identification. Dr. Naczi confirmed it as glomerate sedge. Then in June 2009 Rob Naczi himself discovered it in the southwestern portion of the botanical garden grounds near the Bronx River during a survey of the plants of the Bronx Forest. Both of these discoveries were then reported to the Natural Heritage Program in 2011.
Only three populations of glomerate sedge have ever been reported from New York (there is also a Torrey specimen at NYBG with no location) which is at the northeastern edge of its range. It was first collected from the Perch Lake area of Jefferson County in 1949 then again in 1959 from the Spring Valley area of Rockland County. In 1988 Mike Oldham, a Heritage botanist from Ontario, collected it in Oakwood Cemetery during a trip to the Natural Areas conference in Syracuse. Another trip to the cemetery site in 1990 did not find the plants again. All of these collections occurred during the last week of May or in June. For 20 years there were no more collections or sightings of this sedge in New York until that day in Inwood Park. This sedge now has the distinction of being the only state endangered or threatened plant that currently exists on Manhattan Island.
From the New York Natural Heritage Program conservation guides we have the following information about identifying this sedge: There are three other members of Carex section Phaestoglochin (C. sparganioides, C. cephaloidea, and C. gravida) that are similar.
Carex sparganioides is perhaps the most different from C. aggregata of these three. It has a more elongated inflorescences (3-15 cm long) with a larger proximal internode. In addition the widest leaf blades are 5-10 mm wide (Ball 2002).
Carex cephaloidea is the most similar to C. aggregata of the species that occur in New York. Carex cephaloidea has the widest leaf blades (4-)5-8 mm wide and the ligules are just longer than wide. In addition, the pistillate scales are 1.5-2 mm long, subobtuse to acute, and the bodies are no more than 0.5 times the length of the perigynia. Mackenzie in his description of C. aggregata (as C. agglomerata) used culm scabrousity to separate C. cephaloidea and C. aggregata. The angles of the culms of Carex cephaloidea being strongly serrulate while those of C. aggregata are only roughened just below the inflorescence. These character states may be incorrect or subtle.
Carex gravida does not occur in NY but was attributed to the state incorrectly in the past. It is not expected in the state. Carex gravida mainly differs in having the summit of the leaf sheath fronts white, hyaline, not thickened, and fragile.
Carex aggregata illustration from Britton and Brown 1913.
Flora Novae Angliae – published!
November 8, 2011Arthur Haines’s Flora Novae Angliae (A manual for the identification of native and naturalized tracheophytes of New England) has been published. This work is one of the most important floristic works covering New England to ever be published. Although not covering New York this book will be still prove extremely useful in New York due to the similarity of the flora between the two regions. It will provide New York botanists with a much needed modern treatment of tracheophytes of the region and is a must have publication. Thank you Arthur for all your hard work! For detail see this link.
Albany Pine Bush and Brookhaven National Lab Plants Lists Added to NYFA Plant List Map
March 24, 2011The Google map of plant lists for New York is now accessible on the “Plant Lists” tab on our main website www.nyflora.org. Plant lists for the Albany Pine Bush and Brookhaven National Lab have just been added.
New York Counties Lacking Records for Common Genera. Let’s Fill the Gaps!
January 31, 2011Recently I was looking at species of Rosa in the New York Flora Atlas. When I looked at the genus I noticed that the genus map had Cortland County as the only county without a record of any species of Rosa. That made me curious to find out if any other common genera had been recorded in all but a few counties. I decided to look through Mitchell’s 1997 checklist and pick out common genera, ones that had one or more pages of species listed for them. I looked in the atlas at each one and recorded those that had fewer than 5 counties where no species had been recorded in the atlas. The genera are listed below in taxonomic order followed by the counties that have no records.
Thalictrum – Wayne
Ulmus – Allegany, Seneca
Quercus – Herkimer, Cortland
Betula – Seneca, Schuyler, Cortland, Chenango
Silene – Broome, Allegany, Wyoming
Stellaria – Franklin, Steuben, Wyoming, Orleans
Rumex – Herkimer
Hypericum – Schuyler
Cardamine – Cortland, Sullivan, Schoharie
Lysimachia – Cortland, Orleans
Ribes – Broome, Schuyler, Ontario, Orleans
Amelanchier – Livingston
Geum – Wayne, Seneca, Broome, Franklin
Potentilla – Cortland, Seneca, Wyoming, Orleans
Rosa – Cortland
Trifolium – Herkimer, Schenectady, Cortland, Seneca
Acer – Cortland
Asclepias – Cortland, Wayne
Scutellaria – Schuyler, Cortland, Broome, Schoharie
Veronica – Orleans
Galium – Orleans
Lonicera – Wayne, Wyoming
Bidens – Broome, Schuyler
Potamogeton – Broome, Schoharie
Scirpus – Wyoming, Orleans
Muhlenbergia – Broome
Panicum – Franklin
Trillium – Kings
Cypripedium – Fulton, Seneca, Orleans
Cortland County appeared most often in this list with Orleans County second. I think they would be good candidates for additional flora work. Maybe you can find other less common genera that also have gaps in just a few counties. If you are out collecting plants in some of these counties this summer, make sure you collect these common genera to fill the gaps in the atlas. Happy botanizing! – Steve Young
Genus Rosa map with the Cortland County gap.
New Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada
January 11, 2011
A website is now available for the New Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Visit this website to find out more about this exciting project which is being organized by Rob Naczi of the New York Botanical Garden.
Yes, Old Pressed Plants Are Really Useful
December 30, 2010CLICK HERE to see an article about how ecologists are using herbarium specimens to study global warming. Brooklyn Botanic Garden is featured.
Database of Vascular Plants of Canada Released
December 14, 2010Canadensys announces the release of VASCAN, the Database of Vascular Plants of Canada, a comprehensive list of all vascular plants reported in Canada, Greenland (Denmark) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France).
http://data.canadensys.net/vascan/
Canadensys is a Canada-wide effort to unlock the biodiversity information held in biological collections. The network currently includes biological collections from 11 participating universities, five botanical gardens, and two museums, covering insects, fungi and plants. The network is operated from the Biodiversity Centre, Université de Montréal.
The goal of VASCAN is to provide an up-to-date, documented source of the names of vascular plants in Canada, Greenland, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, both scientific and vernacular. For every species, subspecies and variety, VASCAN provides the accepted scientific name (Latin), the accepted French and English vernacular names, and their synonyms/alternatives in Canada. The distribution status (native, introduced, etc.) of the plant for each province or territory, and the habit (tree, shrub, herb or vine) of the plant in Canada are given. Maps at the provincial/territorial level are provided with an indication of status. For reported hybrids (nothotaxa or hybrid formulas), the parents also are provided. A source is given for each name, classification and distribution information (still being completed).
All taxa are linked to a classification. The following were used: Smith et al. (2006) for ferns, APG III (2009) for flowering plants, and Chase and Reveal (2009) for the higher taxonomy.
It is possible to generate lists in VASCAN using the Checklist builder tool. Data can be downloaded from VASCAN under the Creative Commons (BY-NC) license.
New York Flora Association Blog 