Floristic Inventory of Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Northeast Region Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Floristic Inventory of Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/105 ON THE COVER Bluejacket (Tradescantia ohiensis). Photograph by: J. P. Vanderhorst. Floristic Inventory of Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/105 Brian P. Streets, James P. Vanderhorst, Celeste Good, and Greg Short WV Natural Heritage Program Wildlife Resource Section West Virginia Division of Natural Resources P.O. Box 67 Elkins, WV 26241 July 2008 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Northeast Region Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The Northeast Region of the National Park Service (NPS) comprises national parks and related areas in 13 New England and Mid-Atlantic states. The diversity of parks and their resources are reflected in their designations as national parks, seashores, historic sites, recreation areas, military parks, monuments and memorials, and rivers and trails. Biological, physical, and social science research results, natural resource inventory and monitoring data, scientific literature reviews, bibliographies, and proceedings of technical workshops and conferences related to these park units are disseminated through the NPS/NER Technical Report (NRTR) and Natural Resources Report (NRR) series. The reports are a continuation of series with previous acronyms of NPS/PHSO, NPS/MAR, NPS/BSO-RNR, and NPS/NERBOST. Individual parks may also disseminate information through their own report series. Natural Resources Reports are the designated medium for information on technologies and resource management methods; "how to" resource management papers; proceedings of resource management workshops or conferences; and natural resource program descriptions and resource action plans. Technical Reports are the designated medium for initially disseminating data and results of biological, physical, and social science research that addresses natural resource management issues; natural resource inventories and monitoring activities; scientific literature reviews; bibliographies; and peer-reviewed proceedings of technical workshops, conferences, or symposia. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the National Park Service. This report was accomplished under Cooperative Agreement H4560-05-0001, with assistance from the NPS. The statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report are solely those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Print copies of reports in these series, produced in limited quantity and only available as long as the supply lasts, or preferably, file copies on CD, may be obtained by sending a request to the address on the back cover. Print copies also may be requested from the NPS Technical Information Center (TIC), Denver Service Center, PO Box 25287, Denver, CO 80225-0287. A copy charge may be involved. To order from TIC, refer to document D-009A. This report may also be available as a downloadable portable document format file from the Internet at http://www.nps.gov/nero/science/. Please cite this publication as: Streets B. P., J. P. Vanderhorst, C. Good, and G. Short. 2008. Floristic Inventory of Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia. Technical Report NPS/NER/NRTR—2008/105. National Park Service. Philadelphia, PA. NPS D-009A July 2008 ii Table of Contents Page Tables ............................................................................................................................................. v Figures ......................................................................................................................................... vii Appendixes .................................................................................................................................. ix Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ xi Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Study Area ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Methods .......................................................................................................................................... 7 Review of Existing Data ....................................................................................................... 7 Floristic Inventory ................................................................................................................. 7 Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Plant Surveys ................................................................ 9 Annotated Checklist .............................................................................................................. 9 Results .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Review of Existing Data ..................................................................................................... 11 Floristic Inventory ............................................................................................................... 13 Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Plant Species ............................................................... 14 Floristic Summary ............................................................................................................... 14 Discussion and Management Recommendations ......................................................................... 19 Literature Cited ............................................................................................................................ 23 iii Tables Page Table 1. Plant taxa collected in the vicinity outside the boundary (with precise location data) and in the vicinity of the boundary (with imprecise location data) of Bluestone National Scenic River. ..................................................................... 15 Table 2. Element Occurrence Records (EORs) of rare, threatened, and endangered plant species in Bluestone National Scenic River entered in the Biotics database as of May 31, 2007. ..................................................................................... 16 v Figures Page Figure 1. Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia, and vicinity. .................................... 4 Figure 2. Locations of walk-through survey plant collection sites and vegetation plots in Bluestone National Scenic River, 2003–2006. ................................................ 8 Figure 3. Photograph of butternut (Juglans cinerea) taken in the gorge of Indian Branch, Bluestone National Scenic River, on April 24, 2004. ..........................................20 vii Appendixes Page Appendix A. State and global conservation rank and federal threatened and endangered status definitions. ............................................................................................... 27 Appendix B. Annotated checklist of vascular plants known from Bluestone National Scenic River, West Virginia. ........................................................................ 31 Appendix C. Definitions of plant nativity status. ....................................................................... 77 Appendix D. Definitions of invasive ranks. ................................................................................ 79 Appendix E. Definitions of estimated abundance ranks. ............................................................ 81 ix Acknowledgments We would like to thank the following individuals for their help with this project. Ken Stephens, John Perez, and Beth Johnson (National Park Service) assisted with contracting and logistics. Tom Vogt (Abies Ecology) assisted with field work in 2003. Dr. Robert Naczi identified several collections of Carex and provided access to the herbarium at Delaware State University. Dr. Donna Ford-Werntz provided access to the herbarium at West Virginia University and Dr. Tonya McKinley provided access to the herbarium at Concord University. Dr. James Rentch (West Virginia University) provided unpublished data from vegetation plots in the park. Elizabeth Byers and Barbara Sargent (WV Natural Heritage Program) assisted with Biotics. xi Executive Summary A floristic inventory of Bluestone National Scenic River, located in southern West Virginia, was conducted from 2003 to 2006 by the West Virginia Natural Heritage Program. Prior to field work, literature and databases were reviewed to compile a list of vascular plants already known to occur in Bluestone National Scenic River. Six hundred sixty-eight vascular plant taxa were identified during the 2003–2006 field surveys including 367 taxa not previously documented from the study area. The documented flora of Bluestone National Scenic River now consists of 786 taxa representing 762 species (some with multiple subspecies or varieties) in 116 plant families. Six hundred eighty taxa (86% of the flora) are native to West Virginia, seven taxa (0.9%) are introduced, 99 taxa (13%) are exotic, one taxon (0.1%)