Lance-Leaved Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae), Its Distribution and Abundance in Illinois

Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science received 5/1/19 (2020) Volume 113, pp. 5-7 accepted 3/16/20

Rhamnus lanceolata Pursh (Lance-leaved Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae), Its Distribution and Abundance in Illinois

*John E. Ebinger, Loy R. Phillippe, and Paul B. Marcum Illinois Natural History Survey, 1816 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820 *Correspondence: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

During the present study we searched for populations of Rhamnus lanceolata Pursh (lance-leaved buckthorn) throughout its known range in Illinois. Considered a relatively common species based on herbarium records, the authors, with a combined total of more than 112 years of field work in Illinois, have rarely encountered this species. During part of a larger study in- volving 80 native Illinois species, we searched for all of these species in most herbaria in Illinois, and a few outside the state, to determine potential population sites. More than 240 specimens of R. lanceolata were found representing 103 populations. Of the 103 populations identified from the herbarium search, we relocated 13 populations from eight Illinois counties. We are not sure of the normal habitat for lance-leaved buckthorn in Illinois, but it is probably a species of hill prairies, hill prairie/forest interface, associated limestone glades of hill prairies, ravines and brushy areas of savannas, and in northeastern Illinois, calcareous fens.

INTRODUCTION curved teeth; petioles 4-10 mm long; sity of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois (ILL); About 11% of the native vascular plant the 4-merous, small unisexual flowers Illinois Natural History Survey, Cham- species found in Illinois are officially appearing with the leaves. We original- paign, Illinois (ILLS); Indiana Uni- listed as state threatened (73 taxa) or ly attributed the present lack of famil- versity, Bloomington, Indiana (IND); state endangered (251 taxa) while an- iarity with lance-leaved buckthorn to Illinois State Museum, Springfield, -Il other 75 or so are considered rare, of this species being “overlooked,” as it is linois (ISM); Illinois State University, special concern, or little is known con- a medium-sized shrub with character- Normal, Illinois (ISU); Knox College, cerning their status in Illinois (Illinois istics similar to those found in a num- Galesburg, Illinois (KNOX); Missouri Endangered Species Protection Board ber of shrubby Illinois species. We are Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri 2015). In contrast, Rhamnus lanceolata now of the opinion that R. lanceolata is (MO); The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, Il- Pursh (lance-leaved buckthorn) is con- now less common in Illinois than in the linois (MOR); Western Illinois Univer- sidered common based on the number past. The study was undertaken to de- sity, Macomb, Illinois (MWI); Natural of herbarium records, and Jones (1945) termine the present status of R. lanceo- Land Institute, Rockford, Illinois (NLI); considered it the “common species in lata in Illinois, and determine the pos- Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois Illinois.” We determined there were sible reason or reasons for its decline. (RCH); and Southern Illinois Univer- about 103 populations for lance-leaved METHODS sity, Carbondale, Illinois (SIU). We also buckthorn based on more than 240 tried to determine the associated spe- We reviewed the pertinent literature, cies, ecological requirements, and oth- specimens located from a search of 19, discussed the species with local biolo- mostly Illinois, herbaria. From this data er data concerning lance-leaved buck- gists, and visited most of the herbaria thorn from label information on the we originally felt this species was too in Illinois and some larger herbaria in common to warrant an extensive study. herbarium specimens. Field searches surrounding states to determine where during the growing season from 2010 However, many of the botanists we Illinois populations of Rhamnus lance- talked with said “they had only rarely to 2016 were undertaken throughout olata had been collected. Listed below Illinois, visiting all known sites based encountered this species” while others are the locations and acronyms of the mentioned “they had never seen it.” on herbarium records. Nomenclature herbaria where specimens were exam- follows Mohlenbrock (2002). Also, the present authors, with a com- ined: Burpee Museum of Natural His- RESULTS bined total of 112 years of field work in tory, Rockford, Illinois (BUR); Chicago Illinois, have rarely encountered this Academy of Science, Chicago, Illinois A specimen collected by George Engel- species in Illinois. (CHAS); Chicago Botanical Garden, mann (# 13046, St. Clair Co.: Bellville, Rhamnus lanceolata, a member of the Glencoe, Illinois (CHIC); Northern Illi- Apr 1832, MO-fl) is the earliest record- family Rhamnaceae (Buckthorn Fam- nois University, DeKalb, Illinois (DEK); ed collection of Rhamnus lanceolata we ily), has simple, alternate, lanceolate Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, found for Illinois, the second was col- to elliptic leaves, the blades 3-8 cm Illinois (EIU); Field Museum of Natural lected by Samuel B. Mead (# 173, Han- long, 1.5-4 cm wide, with mostly 4 or History, Chicago, Illinois (F); Gray Her- cock Co., Augusta, 20 Apr 1842, F-fl). more pairs of up-curved lateral veins, barium of Harvard University, Cam- We found herbarium specimens of this and margins finely serrulate within bridge, Massachusetts (GH); Univer- species from 47 Illinois counties, most- Rhamnus lanceolata Pursh (Lance-leaved Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae), Its Distribution and Abundance in Illinois 6 John E. Ebinger, Loy R. Phillippe, Paul B. Marcum ly in the northern and central part of sippi and Illinois rivers (Calhoun, Ful- (Phillippe # 43031/ILL), none of the re- the state (Appendix). Earlier, Mohlen- ton, Marshall, Morgan, Peoria, Pike, maining populations contained many brock and Ladd (1978) list 44 counties Tazewell) with only Kendall County individuals, usually just one to six for this species including Richland, being part of the prairie peninsula. Of shrubs were encountered. Schuyler and Winnebago counties these 13 populations four were from DISCUSSION where we have not recorded herbari- loess hill prairies, two in rocky open- um specimens. ings and glades, two in wooded hab- As many of the herbarium records are itats, three were found on roadsides from the early to mid 1900s the chances Lance-leaved buckthorn’s distribu- of finding viable populations was low. tion in Illinois extends from Jo Daviess (mostly in forest), one each in a gravel prairie and in an open seeps (Table On most specimen labels map coordi- County in the northwest corner of Il- nates were not given and GPS readings linois south to Monroe County along 1). Except for one population in Futon County where we counted 18 individ- were unknown. Generally, the collec- the Mississippi River, and from Kane, tor listed the nearest town, or gave the DuPage, and Cook counties in north- uals of R. lanceolata (Phillippe # 43072/ ILLS), and another in Tazewell County distance and direction from the nearest eastern Illinois south to Marion Coun- town, or listed a state park or natural ty. This distribution includes many of where we encountered 65 individuals the Illinois counties in the prairie peninsula and almost all of the counties along the Illinois River and the north- Table 1. Populations of Rhamnus lanceolata relocated during the present study ern three-quarters of the Mississippi listed by county and giving the original collector, collecting number, and year River in Illinois. collected, present habitat with latitude and longitude, our collecting number (Loy R. Phillippe), and the number of years the population has existed (first known Habitat recorded for Rhamnus lanceola- collection to present). ta in Illinois, based on the information recorded from herbarium labels, var- First Collector Present Habitat County Our number Age ies extensively. Location information collecting number/year Latitude Longitude is short, in most instances only a few Calhoun J. E. Ebinger rocky glade, S-facing slope 43427 20 words; only rarely is information giv- 27373/1997 39.06167 -90.61135 en concerning associated species, and Calhoun R. A. Evers high quality loess hill prairie 43435 68 habitat information is sometimes lack- 20772/1949 39.23508 -90.71723 ing. In the counties along the Mississip- Calhoun R. A. Evers rocky ledge 43437 64 pi River, many of the herbarium labels 338482/1953 39.33464 -90.62067 from specimens collected during the Fulton R. A. Evers roadside, woodland edge 42505 48 middle of the last century, indicate an 99014/1969 40.3385 -90.4172 association with hill prairies and rocky Fulton P. Shildneck roadside, upland woods 43072 38 areas, (i.e. open wooded slope, hill prairie/wooded border, cliff face, wooded 10959/1979 40.67775 -90.13933 ravine, rocky ledge, bluff top, rocky Kendall R. A. Evers wooded ravine, W-facing 43447 64 woods). For specimens from the prairie 40317/1953 41.56686 -88.59311 peninsula of Illinois collected during Kendall D. Young open seep in upland woods 43449 44 the middle of the last century the list- s.n./1973 41.64125 -88.41659 ings are more diverse (i.e. wooded ra- Marshall R. A. Evers woods, bank of creek 43349 69 vine, original prairie, hill prairie, base 9160/1948 41.09198 -89.20251 of wooded cliff, thickets, along creek, Morgan S. R. Hill degraded loess hill prairie 43051 20 stream bank, wooded border, bank of 29861/1997 39.86126 -90.36639 swamp, low open woods, woods along Morgan R. T. Rexroat loess hill prairie 43054 61 creek). In Illinois, the natural habitat 2173/1956 39.8728 -90.3975 for lance-leaved buckthorn is probably Peoria* V. H. Chase weedy roadside, some trees 43345 109 hill prairies, the hill prairie/forest in- 1631/1908 40.92826 -89.98541 terface, the associated limestone glades of hill prairies, and ravines and brushy Pike R. A. Evers steep loess hill prairie 43702 64 areas of savannas, and calcareous fens 41287/1953 39.5548 -91.02363 in northeastern Illinois. Tazewell J. E. Ebinger Manito gravel prairie 43031 16 29544/2001 40.52851 -89.76963 We located no new populations of lance-leaved buckthorn but did relo- *The specimen of V. H. Chase 1631 (ILL) lists the locality in Knox County near Williamsfield, Truro cate 13 populations in eight Illinois Township, collected 10 May 1908. Though the collecting information is vague, we searched the area around Williamsfield and located a single shrub of Rhamnus lanceolata about 2 km E of Williamsfield counties (Table 1). Of these, most were just across the county line in Peoria County. This site possibly represents part of the same population in counties associated with the Missis- collected by V. H. Chase 109 years earlier. Rhamnus lanceolata Pursh (Lance-leaved Buckthorn, Rhamnaceae), Its Distribution and Abundance in Illinois 7 John E. Ebinger, Loy R. Phillippe, Paul B. Marcum area. Many of these areas, particular- LITERATURE CITED ly state parks and many natural areas, llinois Endangered Species Protection cover one or more square miles making Board 2015. Checklist of Illinois En- them difficult to search. dangered and Threatened Animals and Plants. Illinois Department of Natural Re- Besides the lack of information on her- sources. Springfield, Illinois. barium labels, another significant rea- Jones, G. N. 1945. Flora of Illinois. The son for the low success rate is the mas- American Midland Naturalist, Mono- sive invasion of exotic plant species graph Series, Monograph No. 2, Universi- during the past 60 years. This invasion ty of Notre Dame, Indiana 317 pp. has resulted in the loss of habitat for McClain, W. E. 1983. Photodocumentation of the loss of hill prairie within Pere Mar- many uncommon species, particularly quette State Park, Jersey County, Illinois. those that are site and habitat specif- Transactions of the Illinois State Academy ic. Also, success rate depends on the of Science 76:343-346. length of time since a particular spe- McClain, W. E. and E. A. Anderson. 1990. cies was first reported or collected at a Loss of hill prairie through woody plant site. Overall, habitat destruction over invasion at Pere Marquette State Park, Jer- time has resulted in a decrease in abun- sey County, Illinois. Natural Areas Jour- dance of many native species, especial- nal 10:69-75. ly those that were already uncommon. McClain, W. E., A.C. Moorehouse and J. E. Ebinger. 2009. Loss of Hulsebus Loess Also, many species react unfavorably Hill Prairie, Henderson County, Illinois to to habitat changes. Succession likewise woody plant invasion. Transactions of the makes a changed site unsuitable for Illinois State Academy of Science 102:141- many native species continued exis- 147. tence. This is particularly true with hill Mohlenbrock, R. H. 2002. Vascular Flora of prairies. These transient communities, Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press. in the absence of fire, are subjected to Carbondale and Edwardsville. x +490 pp. woody invasion. Many small hill prai- Mohlenbrock, R. H. and D. Ladd. 1978. ries have been lost completely, having Distribution of Illinois Vascular Plants. Southern Illinois University Press. Car- become woody thickets (McClain et al. bondale and Edwardsville. x + 282 pp. 2009). Recent studies show a reduction Robertson, K. R., M. W. Swartz, J. W. Olson, of 50% to 65% in the size of many hill B. K. Dunphy, and H. D. Clarke. 1996. Fif- prairies during the 50 year period from ty years of change in Illinois Hill Prairies. 1936 to 1986 (McClain 1983, McClain Erigenia 14:41-52. and Anderson 1990, Robertson et al. Schwartz, M. W., K. R. Robertson, B. K. 1996, Schwartz et al. 1997). Dunphy, J. W. Olson, and A. M. Trame. 1997. The biogeography of and habitat ACKNOWLEDGMENTS loss on hill prairies. Pages 267-283. In M. The authors would like to thank the cu- W. Schwartz, ed., Conservation of High- rators of the herbaria that offered their ly Fragmented Landscapes. Chapman & facilities and help in examining their Hill. New York. herbarium specimens. We also thank the many individuals that offered information concerning the various species we were trying to relocate, and those who traveled with us on field trips to relocate populations. This includes, but is not limited to: Connie Carroll-Cun- ningham, William C. Handel, Kerry Helm, Michael Jones, David Ketzner, Richard Larimore, Nohra Mateus-Pi- nilla, William E. McClain, Michael J. C. Murphy, Philip E. Phillippe, Dan- ielle Ruffatto, Gordon C. Tucker, Eric Ulaszek and Jason J. Zylka. We also thank the Illinois Department of Trans- portation, their financial help made it possible for us to complete the study.