Poterium sanguisorba

Weakley, Alan S., Kees, John C., Sorrie, Bruce A., Ward, Scott G., Poindexter, Derick B., Brock, Mason, Estes, L. Dwayne, Bridges, Edwin L., Orzell, Steve L., Levin, Geoffrey A., McClelland, R. Kevan Schoonover, Schmidt, Ryan J. & Namestnik, Scott A., 2023, Studies In The Vascular Flora Of The Southeastern United States. Ix, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 17 (1), pp. 191-257 : 241-242

Poterium sanguisorba L. var. polygamum (Waldst. & Kit.l) Vis. ( Rosaceae ). MISSISSIPPI: Lamar Co.: J.C. Kees 1367 (NCU). This is the first report of P. sanguisorba from Mississippi, collected on roadsides through a disturbed Longleaf Pine sandhill at Camellia Lakes Farm in Lamar County during a bioblitz. Poterium sanguisorbum is treated as a waif in most of the southeast by Weakley & Southeastern Flora Team (2022a), but its presence in a fairly remote area suggests it may be naturalizing in Mississippi and overlooked in other southeastern states.

Rhynchospora thornei Kral ( Cyperaceae )— MISSISSIPPI: Wayne Co.: J.C. Kees 1287 (MMNS), J.C. Kees 1429 (NCU). Rhynchospora thornei is rare, disjunctly distributed, and of conservation concern throughout its range, restricted to calcareous wet pine savannahs and seepages in limestone glades. This is the first report for Mississippi, located during surveys of a previously undocumented system of barrens and glades over Oligocene limestone, perhaps more closely related to the glades of Jackson County and Gadsden County, Florida than to nearby Jackson and Black Belt “prairies.” In thin-soiled glades in Wayne County saturated by seepage (apparently nearly year-round), R. thornei may be locally dominant or codominant, associated with Rhynchospora colorata , Schizachyrium scoparium , Sporobolus junceus , Scleria verticillata , Carex microdonta , Agalinis oligophylla , Linum sulcatum , Ruellia humilis , Silphium confertifolium , and Sabatia angularis . R. thornei was also observed (but not collected) in similar grassland patches in Clarke County Alabama, where much larger mosaics exist. All occurrences of R. thornei and this undescribed association are on unprotected land and threatened by timber management activities; tilling, surface mining, and other soil disturbances have destroyed most of the Oligocene glades in both states, and remaining sites continue to be lost at a rapid rate to wildlife food plots and soil disturbance from logging equipment. Most relatively intact glades observed have been impacted by some combination of mowing, herbicide, ORV activity, and resulting infestations of cogongrass ( Imperata cylindrica L.).

Silphium radula Nutt. ( Asteraceae ). MISSISSIPPI: Yazoo Co.: J.C. Kees 1240 (NCU), Hinds Co.: J.C. Kees 1437 (NCU). The name S. radula was formerly misapplied to S. asperrimum Hook ; previous reports from MS are based on S. asperrimum and alternate-leaved S. integrifolium plants (not uncommon where plants have been mowed or otherwise damaged early in the growing season). True S. radula appears to be restricted to isolated western groups of calcareous prairies over outcrops of the Jackson formation on the Yazoo bluff and in southeast Hinds County, not ranging east of the Pearl River or into the Jackson Prairie ecoregion proper. At both sites it is sympatric with S. integrifolium , but more restricted to treeless calcareous prairie openings. S. integrifolium is mostly restricted to calcareous prairies eastward, occurring in virtually every known Jackson Prairie remnant from Rankin County to western Jasper County (though abundant in disturbed sites, perhaps preferring relatively deep or mesic calcareous clay soils, and largely replaced farther east by S. confertifolium ), but becomes widespread in a variety of open habitats in the Loess Plains. Apparent hybrids were also collected on roadsides near the Hinds co. site.Nearly all examples of this western Jackson Prairie variant have been cleared for lawn or housing developments in the past few decades; all are on private land and unprotected, although some associated calcareous woodland and bluff forest communities occur at Lefleur’s Bluff State Park (MDWFP), Butts Park (City of Jackson), and Parham Bridges Park (City of Jackson).

Symphyotrichum pratense (Raf.) G.L. Nesom ( Asteraceae ). MISSISSIPPI: Clarke Co.: J.C. Kees 1373 (NCU), Wayne Co.: J.C. Kees 1411 (NCU). These collections represent the first two reports of S. pratense from the Jackson Prairie and Oligocene limestone, respectively. In Mississippi and Alabama, this species was formerly known only from a handful of remnant chalk prairies in the Black Belt and from limestone glades in north Alabama. It is also known from limestone glades in the Florida panhandle. In Clarke co. it occurs in a small stretch of road median with other species associated with post oak flatwoods and calcareous prairie (much reduced by frequent mowing and herbicide use) close to several degraded mesic Jackson Prairie openings; plants in Wayne co. were collected around dry limestone outcrops within open limestone barrens. It should be sought in other remnant limestone glades, barrens, and xeric Jackson Prairies, particularly in south Alabama.

MISCELLANEOUS FAMILIES

Species newly documented for southern Indiana

Primary author: Scott A.Namestnik

The following nine species are reported as occurring in southern Indiana. Documentation of these species adds to the knowledge of the flora of this region of the state and of the southeastern United States. Andropogon glomeratus (Walter) Britton, Sterns, & Poggenb , Brunnichia ovata (Walter) Shinners , Echinacea simulata R.L. McGregor , Landoltia punctata (G. Mey.) Les & D.J. Crawford and Persicaria densiflora (Meisn.) Moldenke are reported as new to Indiana. Montia linearis (Doug. ex Hook.) Greene was previously known to occur in northern Indiana, but this report documents the first occurrence of this species in southern Indiana. Persicaria robustior (Small) E.P. Bicknell , Persicaria setacea (Baldwin) Small and Solidago rupestris Raf. are reported as extant in southern Indiana.