An Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants
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— — G-RSH THE FLORA OF GREAT SMOKYMOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK: AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST OFTHE VASCULAR PLANTS AND A REVIEW OF PREVIOUS FLORISTIC WORK RESEARCH/RESOURCES MANAGEMENT REPORT SER-55 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE SOUTHEAST REGION UPLANDS FIELD RESEARCH LABORATORY GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK TWIN CREEKS AREA GATLINBURC, TENNESSEE 37738 The Research/Resources Management Series of the Natural Science and Research Division, National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office, was established as a medium for distributing scientific information to park Superintendents, resource management specialists, and other National Park Service personnel in the parks of the Southeast Region. The papers in the Series also contain information potentially useful to other Park Service areas outside the Southeast Region and may benefit independent researchers working within units of the National Park System. The Series provides for the retention of research information in the biological, physical, and social sciences and makes possible more complete in-house evaluation of non-refereed research, technical, and consultant reports. The Research/Resources Management Series is not intended as a substitute for refereed scientific or technical journals. However, when the occasion warrants, a copyrighted journal paper authored by a National Park Service scientist may be reprinted as a Series report in order to meet park informational and disseminative needs. In such cases permission to reprint the copyrighted article is sought. The Series includes: 1. Research reports which directly address resource management problems in the parks. 2. Papers which are primarily literature reviews and/or bibliographies of existing information relative to park resource management problems. 3. Presentations of basic resource inventory data. 4. Reports of contracted scientific research studies funded or supported by the National Park Service. 5. Other reports and papers considered compatible to the Series, including approved reprints of copyrighted journal papers and results of applicable university or independent research. The Series is flexible in format and the degree of editing depends on content. Southeast Regional Research/Resources Management Reports are produced by the Natural Science and Research Division, Southeast Regional Office, in limited quantities. As long as the supply lasts, copies may be obtained from: Natural Science and Research Division National Park Service Southeast Regional Office 75 Spring Street, S.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 NOTE: Use of trade names does not imply U.S. Government endorsement of commercial products. THE FLORA OF GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK: AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST OF THE VASCULAR PLANTS AND A REVIEW OF PREVIOUS FLORISTIC WORK Research/Resources Management Report SER-55 Peter S. White Uplands Field Research Laboratory Great Smoky Mountains National Park Twin Creeks Area Gatlihburg, Tennessee 37738 February, 1982 Department of the Interior National Park Service Southeast Regional Office 75 Spring Street, S. W. Atlanta, Georgia 30303 White, Peter S. 1982. The Flora of Great Smoky Mountains National Park: An Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants and a Review of Previous Floristic Work. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Research/Resources Management Report SER-55. 219 pp. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Documenting the flora of a large and diverse area like Great Smoky Mountains National Park is never the work of a single individual. This report is based on my three years of field work and herbarium research, but it also builds on over 50 years of botanical collecting by previous investigators. Among the pioneer collectors were Albert Ruth, H. M. Jennison, A. J. Sharp (still active), and Arthur Stupka; present-day botanists who have contributed to the collections described in this checklist include Tom Patrick, Jerry Jenkins, Charles Bryson, Leo Collins, Matt Hickler, George Ramseur, Ken Rogers, Rudi Becking, and J. Dan Pittillo. I would like to thank naturalists Don DeFoe, Bill Hooks, and Glenn Cardwell for valuable plant records. Rob Sutter and Paul Somers aided my search for rare plant records. I thank Jerry Jenkins for helpful discussions on Aster , Solidago , and Viola and Tom Patrick for review data on Trillium . I would like to also thank Gene Wofford, curator, for frequent use of the University of Tennessee Herbarium (where a duplicate set of park collections is kept) . I thank also the curators of the herbaria at the following universities which I visited during the course of this work: Western Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, North Carolina State University, Gray Herbarium (Harvard University), and the herbarium of the Smithsonian Institution. Some of the records herein were brought to my attention by the computerized data bases of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee and North Carolina Heritage Programs. I would also like to thank the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, which supported my travel to several herbaria and which also supported a project to computerize the park's herbarium label data. Claryse Myers and Kitty Manse ill helped my research in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park library and archives. My wife, Carolyn, is also to be thanked for the generous grants of evening, weekend, and vacation time, without which I would not have been able to complete this work. Finally, I would like to thank Nicki Macfarland for typing the manuscript, Lee Anne Renfro for assisting in proofreading, and Jim Wood for editing the manuscript. 11 ABSTRACT One hundred-seventy additions (163 species and seven additional taxa of infraspecif ic rank) to the vascular flora of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee are presented in an annotated checklist. These additions increase the park's known vascular flora by 13 percent to 1,492 taxa (1,438 species plus an additional 54 infraspecif ic taxa). There are 135 families and 574 genera. The largest families are Asteraceae (162 species), Poaceae (132 species), Cyperaceae (94 species), Rosaceae (79 species), and Fabaceae (72 species). Eleven percent of the flora is contained in the five largest genera: Carex (69 species), Panicum (27 species), Viola (26 species), Aster (20 species), and Solidago (19 species). Two hundred-ninety-eight species of woody plants are included (21 percent of the flora). The checklist includes 288 exotics (20 percent); the woody flora is 23 percent exotic. The 163 species new to the flora include exotics (42 percent of the additions) and graminoids (18 percent) Eighteen native woody plants (11 percent) are also included (e.g., Amelanchier sanguinea , Betula cordif olia , Celastrus scandens , Decumaria barbara , Ilex verticillata , Magnolia macrophylla , Smilax bona-nox , and Spiraea virginiana ) . Among the other native additions to the flora are: Asplenium ru ta-mur ar ia , Carex pedunculata , Carex platyphylla , Dodacatheon meadia , Draba ramosissima , Euphorbia purpurea , Juncus trif idus var. monanthos , Millium ef f usum , Potamogeton amplif olius , Swertia caroliniensis , Thelypteris simulata , and Xyris torta ). Four families (Cannabaceae, Lemnaceae, Potamogetonaceae, and Xyridaceae) and 41 genera new to the park are included. Supplementary lists also are presented for excluded species, status of 35 plants listed by Hoffman based on locales outside the park, additional plants in the Chilhowee flora and the five counties around the park, woody plants, status of exotic plants, and exotic plants of developed areas. 1X1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv INTRODUCTION 1 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS CHECKLISTS AND PLANT RECORDS 2 The Pepoon Checklist (1931) 2 Jennison Checklists (1937-1939) 4 A. J. Sharp Checklists (1942-1975) 9 Royal Shanks Checklists (1947-1961) ' 10 Arthur Stupka Records (1935-1961) 11 Frank H. Miller Records (1937-Present) 12 The H. L. Hoffman Checklist (196U, 1966b) 13 Miscellaneous Checklists and Records 14 Other Sources of Information 15 17 METHODS: CRITERIA FOR SPECIES INCLUSION . Herbarium Research 17 Geographic Scope 18 "Unmappable" Locales 19 Exotic Species: Criteria for Inclusion and Examples 22 Excluded Species " 26 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..... 26 The GRSM Flora: Summary Statistics 26 Additions to the Checklist 27 Plant Distribution in GRSM 32 Regional Diversity 37 Threats to the flora 39 Future Work. 42 CHECKLIST FORMAT , 43 THE ANNOTATED CHECKLIST 47 Pteridophyta 47 Spermatophyta 53 Gymnospermae 53 Angiospermae 54 Monocotyledoneae 54 Dicotyledoneae 82 LITERATURE CITED 168 APPENDICES I77 iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Page 1. Early contributors to the GRSM Herbarium 5 2. Species listed by Jennison ( 1939b) but not presently known from the flora of GRSM 8 3. The largest families and genera in GRSM 28 h. Families with the largest numbers of exotic species in GRSM 28 5. Selected, phytogeographically important additions to the GRSM flora since the work of Hoffman (196U, 1966b) 31 6. Northern species in the GRSM flora 33 7. Representative species of special habitats and distributions in western GRSM 35 8. Representative species more common in or restricted to eastern GRSM, southern GRSM, and higher elevations in the Clingmans Dome-Mount LeConte-Charlies Bunion area 36 9. Southern Appalachian endemics in the GRSM flora .... 38 10. Threats to the GRSM flora 40 Figure 1 Location and general geography of GRSM 20 . INTRODUCTION The first published