FLOROF OXFORAD CounTY , MAINE Of OxfordChristophe County,r S. Campbel l and Leslie M. Eastman LIFE SCIENCES AND AGRICULTURE EXPERIMENT STATION UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT ORONO TECHNICAL BULLETIN 99 JULY 1980 Flora of Oxford County, Maine Christopher S. Campbell and Leslie M. Eastman LIFE SCIENCES AND AGRICULTURE EXPERIMENT STATION UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AT ORONO TECHNICAL BULLETIN 99 JULY 1980 DEDICATION This flora is dedicated to the members of the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine who have collected vascular plants in Oxford County during the club meetings in the county in 1907, 1920, 1926, 1929, 1938, 1955 1964 1972, and 1975. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have contributed to this effort. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their considerable kindnesses. Charles D. Richards has provided much guidance and support in flo- ristic techniques both in the herbarium and in the field in Oxford Coun­ ty. Several people have contributed their expertise in identifying specimens from Oxford County: Norman Famous in the Asteraceae, Peter Gagnon in Potamogeton, Barre Hellquist in aquatics, James Hickey in Lycopodium, Fay Hyland in woody plants, Lawrence Morse in Hudsonia, Henry Svenson in the Cyperaceae, and Rolla Tryon in Dry- opteris. Final responsibility for the identification of all specimens cited in this flora is taken by the authors. The Brown Paper Co. and the International Paper Co. granted us permission to cross their land and to collect specimens. Thanks are also due to the curators of the herbaria at the University of New Hampshire, the New England Botanical Club, the Harvard University Herbaria, and the University of Maine for the use of their collections. We are par­ ticularly indebted to the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology of the University of Maine at Orono for facilities and equipment necessary for work on a flora. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ] Present Botanical Investigations 1 Previous Botanical Investigations 1 Location and Area 2 Culture 2 FACTORS AFFECTING THE FLORA 4 Topography 4 Climate 5 Geology and Soils 8 Drainage 11 Biological Environment 14 PLANT ASSOCIATIONS 15 Aquatic 15 Shores 16 Bogs 16 Swales 18 Bottomland Forest 20 Upland Forest 21 Ledges 24 Montane 25 Sand Barrens 26 Old Fields 26 Roadsides, Waste Places, and Railroad Ballast -28 TYPE LOCALITIES IN OXFORD COUNTY 29 EXCLUDED SPECIES 30 CATALOGUE 30 REFERENCES 217 INDEX 225 INTRODUCTION Present Botanical Investigations This is a study of the vascular plants occurring in Oxford County, Maine. Plants with vascular or conductive tissue (kingdom Plantae, divi­ sion Tracheophyta [102]*) include the ferns and their "allies" (horsetails and lycopods) and the seed-bearing plants. Our work on this flora began in the summer of 1973 when we collected herbarium specimens in an area centered around Evans Notch and including all the towns of Batchelders Grant, Gilead, and Mason and adjoining portions of the towns of Beth­ el, Stoneham, and Stow (see Figure 1). In 1974 we decided to expand our work to include all of Oxford County. We have attempted to survey all the types of habitats throughout the county at all times of the growing season. From a review of the plant material collected in the county and deposited in the herbaria of the University of Maine at Orono and the New Hampshire and the New England Botanical Club, it became clear that certain regions of the county, namely the extreme north and south, had been relatively neglected. Hence these areas were explored more inten­ sively than others in 1974. For the county as a whole, in 1974 and 1975, areas which appeared promising in terms of diversity or rarity of species were surveyed with the intent of finding all the species, varieties, and forms of plants growing without cultivation in the county. Over 3000 voucher specimens accompanied by appropriate field data have been deposited in the herbaria of the University of Maine at Orono and the New England Botanical Club. Our aim has been to determine which plants occur in the county and, based on herbarium collections and observations, their habitat preferences, frequency of occurrence, and geographic distribution. We have also endeavored to explain the nature of the flora first in terms of the various factors which influence its composition and second by group­ ing the plants into the most important natural associations. Previous Botanical Investigations There is no complete botanical survey of Oxford County. Previous work consists of more or less local collecting of herbarium specimens and some generalized collecting throughout the county except in the extreme north. Based on the material in the herbaria of the Universities of Maine at Orono and New Hampshire and the New England Botanical Club, there had been no botanical explorations in Bowmantown, Oxbow, Par- machenee, Parkertown, and Upper Cupsuptic until the present work. •Numbers in [ ] refer to published works listed in literature cited on page 217. Numbers in ( ) usually refer to pressed specimens preserved in various herbaria. 2 LSA EXPERIMENT STATION TECHNICAL BULLETIN 99 Numerous brief articles concerning locations and range extensions of notable plants may be found in the literature [3], [5], [6], [7], [14], [16], [18], [27], [28], [29], [30], [33], [41], [49], [50], [62], [74], [75], [76], [77], [78], [79], [82], [83], [84], [85], [87], [92], [99], [100], [101], and [104], More comprehensive works on the state and regional levels have been helpful [8], [34], [40], [61], [80], and [97]. Other local floras from the Northeast have been useful in suggesting methods [60], [72], and [86], Pease's work [86] on Coos County, New Hampshire has provided the basis for the format of our work. Although the two counties share 116 km of boundary, their floras differ in several ways. The biggest dif­ ferences are the alpine zone of the Mt. Washington Range and the many cedar bogs of Coos County and the sand plains and many southern species at the northern limit of their range in Oxford County. Location and Area Oxford County lies in the northwest corner of Maine and is bordered to the north by Frontenac County of the Province of Quebec, Canada, to the east and south by Franklin, Androscoggin, Cumberland, and York Counties of Maine, and to the west by Carroll and Coos Coun­ ties of New Hampshire. The only natural boundaries are the northern which divides the watersheds of the Androscoggin and St. Lawrence Rivers, the southern which is the Ossipee River, and those parts of the eastern boundary with Cumberland County made by the Saco and Crook­ ed Rivers and Elkins Brook. In size and shape the county resembles the state of Delaware. It is long in a north-south direction, about 175 km from its northernmost point on Saddle Hill (45° 20' N. Lat.) to its south­ ernmost point on the Ossipee River (43° 47' N. Lat.) and varies from about 13 km wide at its widest point in the northernmost town (Bowman- town) to its greatest width just below its middle, and back to about 16 km at its southern border. The distance from the westernmost point at Crown Monument (71° 4' W. Long.), the junction of Maine, New Hampshire, and Quebec, to its easternmost point in Canton (70° 15' W. Long.) is about 68 km. The total area of the county is 5550 sq km, of which 225 sq km are open water and 75 sq km are bog or swamp. Culture The county includes 54 towns of which 20 are unorganized. The 44,345 inhabitants of these towns (1975 census) depend upon the pulp and paper and wood products industry as the leading source of employ­ ment. The major companies in the county (Brown Paper Co., Interna­ tional Paper Co., Seven Islands Land Co., and Oxford Paper Co.) hold the northern third of the county as a vast reservoir of timber for their LSA EXPERIMENT STATION TECHNICAL BULLETIN 99 3 Figure 1. Political map of Oxford County. 4 LSA EXPERIMENT STATION TECHNICAL BULLETIN 99 mills. Nearly every inhabited town has a mill for the production of paper or wood products such as dowels or tool handles. Oxford Paper Division of Boise-Cascade Paper Group is the largest employer (4000 employees) in the most concentrated population center, the Rumford-Mexico area. Other large towns are Bethel, Fryeburg, Norway, and Paris, the county seat. Farming has been in a steady decline over the past 95 years. Day [24] notes that early movement away from the farm in the decade following agriculture's zenith in 1880 was concentrated in "rough and hilly areas" such as characterize much of Oxford County. In that decade alone Rum- ford and Norway lost 42 and 50 farms respectively. And now old stone walls that once separated pastures are a common sight in woods that have grown up on abandoned farmland. Nevertheless farming remains a very important aspect of Oxford County's economy. There are about 800 farms of which 200 are dairy (with 52 sq km in pasture), 119 poultry, and the remainder in field crops. Of the 207 sq km of farmland given over to crops, most are in the valleys of the Saco and Androscoggin Rivers. The former, which has the largest farming area of contiguous alluvial soils in Maine [90], produces string, shell, and dry beans, potatoes, squash, cu­ cumbers, lettuce, and broccoli. The latter yields primarily corn and potatoes. In economic importance after the wood industry and farming come tourism, apple orchards, tanning, and canning. FACTORS AFFECTING THE FLORA Growth, reproduction, and dispersal of plants and thus the com­ position of the flora are affected by topography, climate, geology, soils, and the biological environment. It must be understood that these factors are interrelated. The topography of a region reveals variation in its bedrock, particularly its resistance to weathering, and geologic history.