:: : IIIlIBiKsOSISliillllli?' : : [BOTANICAL SOCIETY May - June 1992 Vol. 2, No. 3 Reminder The spring is passing by, and it’s time to pay those 1992 dues if you haven’t already done so. Please check this issue’s mailing label. If the code *NP* appears, we haven’t yet received your membership renewal. Membership is $10.00 per calendar year. Make checks payable to: L.I. Botanical Society and mail to: Lois Lindberg, Membership Welwyn Preserve Crescent Beach Rd. Glen Cove, NY 11542 If you have received a complimentary newsletter, please indicate if you would like to remain on our mailing list. Arthur Cronquist Dies On March 22, 1992, Arthur Cronquist of the New York Botanical Garden died of a heart attack while working on the Intermountain Flora in Utah. The New York Botanical Garden will have a memorial service on May 5, 1992 at 1 1:00 a.m. For more information contact the New York Botanical Garden. If you wish to submit reminiscences of Dr. Cronquist we will gather them together for the next issue. PROGRAMS May 12, 1992 - 7:30 p.m *, Dr, George Rogers, "Unusual Roles for Everyday Plants", Uplands Farm Nature Center, Cold Spring Harbor. June 9, 1992 - 7:30 pan.*, Dr. Robert Zaremba, "Fire Management and implications on rare plants". Uplands Farm feature Center, Cold Spring Harbor. *Refreshments start at 7:30 p.m. the program starts about 8:00 p.m. ■ . Poke-- the Jekyll and Hyde of the Long Island Flora Dr. John Fogg, in his wonderful Weeds of Lawn and Garden (1945) called poke ( Phytolacca americana L.) the "Jekyll and Hyde of the plant world," and revealed his horticultural disdain by suggesting "... war should be declared on all suspects [seedlings believed to represent poke] and they should be ruthlessly liquidated." Knowledge gained since Dr. Fogg’s 1945 insights has shown him to be more correct in his assessment of the good vs. evil, yin/yang of poke than he could have ever expected. Beyond being a garden pest, poke is dangerous. The plant is deadly and insidious. At the grossest level, persistent roots in gardens have been mistaken for parsnips with painfully fatal results. The berries look tempting, but their ingestion has killed and sickened many people. There is one report of poke poisoning from human ingestion of birds fed pokeberries, and another from consumption of pokeberry pancakes. Even touching the plants carries risks: researchers a few years ago ..oied proliferation of human white blood cells from mere skin contact. This prompted biochemical research culminating in the discovery of proteins now known as "pokeweed mitogens" (PWM) with awesome power to induce mitosis in vivo and in vitro. Pokeweed mitogens have become valuable and much-studied tools in cancer research. Likewise of considerable interest in die same connection are the plant’s antiviral proteins, especially the potent "pokeweed antiviral peptide" (PAP), which blocks viral reproduction, (cont’d) Long Island May - June 1992 Page J Botanical Society Poke conPd All this being so, perhaps Poke Sallet [Salad] Annie of the popular pop song probably should not have been so sanguine about her tasty poke greens, which at one time were even available canned. Edible-plant enthusiasts enjoy the greens picked very young and twice boiled. Modem culinary interest in poke focuses on its rich, red betalain pigments as a source of cheap food coloring. No thank you- in addition to the proteins noted above, poke contains a formidable brew of at least ten toxic saponins, collectively known as "phytolaccosides." Those from one tropical Phytolacca species may save lives as an inexpensive molluscicide to control schistosomiasis. Along the southern Atlantic Coast, across Florida, and along the Gulf Coast, the pokeweeds (especially those adjacent to the sea) tend to have thick leaves with tapered (vs. rounded) bases, short pedicels, relatively few fruits, and upright (rather than the familiar drooping) inflorescences. Some folks regard the Coastal Plain variants as a separate species called Phytolacca rigida Small (the differences hold up in common garden experiments); others interpret them as a maritime ecotype not worthy of taxonomic status. Coming northward, the "rigida" characteristics diminish. Standing on the shore in Jersey City, looking at the Statue of Liberty, I came upon a poke plant with feebly expressed "rigida" features, and Professor Carroll Wood of the Arnold Arboretum had the same experience on Nantucket. Sharp eyes along coastal Long Island may spot traces of this fascinating pattern of variation. Part of the reason poke is such a garden nuisance is its prowess as a pioneer species. Some authorities believe its natural habitat to be highly disturbed banks and shores. The flowers are evidently self-pollinated, and fruiting is 100%. The black berries on red stalks are one of innumerable examples of red and black in combination on bird-dispersed fruits and seeds. The seeds respond heterogeneously to a given set of circumstances, some germinating far more readily than others. Some germinate after as long as 40 years buried. Thus seedling production is likely whether a set of seeds winds up in a newly disturbed site, or in a site that lies undisturbed for decades. In sum then, before ruthlessly liquidating the pokeweed on your street, stop and contemplate a native weed responsible for fatalities, a favorite springtime delicacy, a tool helping unravel the mysteries of cancer and of viruses, an engaging taxonomic problem, and an intriguing example of adaptation to bird dispersal. Then liquidate-but don’t forget to wear your rubber gloves.- Dr. George Rogers, Clark Botanic Garden Fogg, J. M. Jr. 1945. Weeds of Lawn and Garden. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. 215 pp. Comments on the proposed LIBS Logo "The Newsletter is looking great. As regards the logo-I can’t help feel that Curly Grass Fern is not a plant with a lot of visual appeal on a logo, and that on this one it looks like some sort of menacing squid- like sea creature, about to come ashore at Fire Island. The drawing is very fine-but couldn’t we put a flowering plant there-I know Gerardia is overdone, and Birdfoot Violet is a bit corny, but why not a flower? An orchid? Or maybe a Eupatorium-nah, no one knows what that is."-Prof. Ray Welch, Suffolk Community College "I like your proposed logo. ’The meek [curly grass fern] shall inherit the Earth,’ or at least get some welcome recognition. My only suggestion would be to have Long Island in a diffferent color from the Curly Grass, to provide contrast. "-Dr. David Hammond, New York Botanical Garden "I think the Curly Grass Fern logo is simply perfect for LIBS! I really like it."-Carol Johnston, Planting Fields Arboretum "I saw the new logo proposed for LIBS but I have a concern about the drawings. They look too detailed for use when the logo is printed in a small size. You might want to stylize the shape of the island and the plant so it will print better at a small size. These days many societies are using more stylized logos because they arc considered more modem and more easily recognized, Steven Young, New York Natural Heritage Program New Members The Long Island Botanical Society is pleased to welcome the following new members: Stephen Abrams - Searington; Colleen Donahue - Huntington Station; Dr. Eugene Ogden - Delmar; Charles Cetas - Riverhead; Dr. Richard S taker - St. John’s University; Edwin Horning - Fishers Island; Aline Euler - Bayside; Brooklyn Botanic Garden Library - Brooklyn; Arthur Skopec - Whitestone Long Island Mycological Club The Long Island Mycological Club has Saturday morning (9:30 - 12:30) mushroom forays on Long Island, Guests are welcome. Contact Horst Welzcl (516-785-7795) for more information about the forays or about the club. Long Island Botanical Society May - June 1992 Page 2 Quillwort Quests Part 1. Isoetes at Lake Ronkonkoma Quillworts (Isoetes) are a kind of clubmoss (lycopsid) and, with whiskfems (psilopsids) and horsetails (sphenopsids), are among the earliest of terrestrial plants with vascular tissue. Quillworts had their ascendancy during the Carboniferous Period some three hundred fifty million years ago. They are usually regarded as being derived from whiskfems in the late Devonian, but most recently comparative studies of the DNA of vascular plants have shown these psilopsids to be derived examples of tracheophytes while the three lycopsids (Lycopodium, Selaginella, and Isoetes) are shown to be the most primitive of all tracheophytes on the basis of the similarity of their DNA to the bryophyte Marchantia (Raubenson & Jansen, 1992). Clubmosses (including quillworts), whiskfems and horsetails are referred to as fem allies with deference to their better known broad-leaves (pteropsid) cousins, the ferns. During the Carboniferous, quillworts were large, much larger than the foot or so the largest ones grow to today. We would be considered raving mad to claim we had seen an amphibious Eryops (ex extinct salamader- like amphibian) in a Long Island swale somewhere, but these vegetable contemporaries of Eryops can still be found if you go out of your way to look for them. My desire to see a quillwort was bom when only a boy in Georgia. There I botanized the granite outcrops at and around Stone Mountain. Shallow basins leached out of the solid granite by the rain are filled with water in the spring and, because they reflect the sky, are known locally as cloud pools. These pools are host to a number of rare and endemic species found nowhere else in the world. Although I saw the tiny figwort, Amphianthus pusillus Torr., blooming in one of these pools, I never saw the endemic Isoetes melanospora Engelm. This disappointment was still keen twenty years later when (after a long captivity in New York City) I moved to Long Island in 1970. I set out immediately to find a quillwort and, luckily, there were quillworts on Long Island. At first I mistook the angiosperm pipewort (Eriocaulon sp.) for quillwort, but quite fortuitously found leaves of real quillworts floating among debris on the north shore of Lake Ronkonkoma on the same day (11 Jun 1970, Bookout 102). The quill-like leaves of Isoetes have quadrangularly arranged air columns and dichotomously forking roots. The presence of both these characters together with conspicuous clusters of megaspores at the bases of the leaves made me certain that I was finally looking at a real quillwort. However, I still had not found the quillworts in their habitat rooted in the soil. (I do not know what agency broke these leaves from the plants; luckily they float.) Since no plants were seen in shallow water, I knew I had to do some diving although dressed in long pants. I wrote in my field no Los, 'About forty to fifty feet offshore at a depth of about six feet my fingers passed through dense, wiry masses of what I knew must be the native habitat of Isoetes. At the surface plants came to light that were fresh and a living- green" (notes p. 24), That was the only plant I ever recognized by touch rather than by sight. A phone call to George Kalmbacher at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden confirmed that at their Herbarium there was an unidentified Isoetes collected by Rollin M. Harper, but on the south shore of Lake Ronkonkoma. 1 made the determination of I. tuckermanii A. Br. with the aid of descriptions and pictures of the megasporcs in Gleason (1963), Femald (1950) and Fassett (1969). However specimens I sent to C. V. Morton at the Smithsonian’s National Herbarium were thought to have been collected too early in the season for reliable identification. Dr. Morton died before he made a positive identification. On June 19, 1970, 1 swam underwater around the entire circumference of Lake Ronkonkoma. " Isoetes tuckermanii A. Br. grows in varying abundance around the entire shore ..." I wrote in my field notes. "It grows in water from two-and-one half or three to six feet deep, although water deeper than six feet was not explored. The south shore of Lake Ronkonkoma drops off very steeply about twenty-five feet (or less) from shore. Isoetes grows here individually, and the larger individuals were observable, scattered, as the bottom sloped down into darkness. In the shallower water of two to four feet it grows singly at scattered, irregular intervals of from one to five feet apart (or farther where it is scarce). These plants have strongly recurving ... sporophylls. On the north, west and east margins of the Lake it seems to grow in greatest abundance forming very dense, cespitose colonies that carpet the bottom for tens of feet in every direction. These plants have spirally ascending and usually longer leaves. They do not seem to be as well developed with respect to the size of the sporangia and corm as the plants that grow singly ... " (notes p. 29 f.).-Henry Bookout Fassett, N. C. 1969. A Manual of Aquatic Plants. The University pf Wisconsin Press, Madison. Femaid, M. L. 1950. Gray's Manual of Botany. American Book Company, Atlanta. Gleason, H. A. 1963. Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Canada. Hafner Publishing Company for the New York Botanical Garden, New York. Raubeson, L. A. & R. K. Jansen. 1992. Chloroplast DNA Evidence on the Ancient Evolutionary Split in Vascular Land Plants. Science 255: 1697-1699. Long Island Botanical Society May - June 1992 Page 3 DON’T BE BLUE - KNOW YOUR BLUEGRASSES Identifying the genus and some common springtime grasses. If you want to get into grasses, Bluegrasses are not a bad place to start. But first, read the introduction to a book like Pohl’s How To Know the Grasses (1978) or Brown’s Grasses (1979). And get a club-member friend to go over grass parts with you. For this article, you need the terms: spikelet, lemma, floret, awn, ligule. The Bluegrasses (genus Poa) are a worldwide temperate zone genus of about 250 species, eight of which have been reported in Long Island. This article will help you identify the genus and some of the commonest spring species; next issue I’ll cover our other species, saving background and systematics for winter leisure. Taxonomists complain that Bluegrasses look too much alike to analyze easily, but it’s not that difficult if you pay attention to a few details. First: When you suspect you have a Bluegrass, check the leaves (please note: leaves - plural; just one is never safe). Hold a fresh leaf between your thumb and forefinger and slide up the leaf past the tip. As the goes throu &h y our fingers, do you feel that bump? It’s made by the "boat-shaped" tip: the edges of the leaf fold Typ*»i Poa leaf upward near the end of the leaf and meet like the prow of a sleek ship. Avoid dried, broken or split leaves, and if possible, young leaves. Third: Learn the characters of the Bluegrass genus. Like many other grasses, its inflorescence is a (usually open) panicle, (but some species droop when not flowering). It also shares its spikelet type: two to (more often) several florets underpinned by SHORT glumes. "Short" in glume language means that the top of the longer glume does not reach beyond the top of the lowest floret.* Poa - type »pikclct. Poa floret with "web." Note that Bluegrass spikelets - are hairy (either the "web," or hairy florets, or both). - have a pale, empty floret at the spikelet tip. - never have awns or split floret tips. - usually have scarious (papery-white) floret Lips - frequently have rosy, purplish, or silver bluish patches. Five genera that could be confused: 1. Fescues ( Festuca and Vulpia ): have smooth spikelets (here); most arc awned. 2. Bromes ( Bromus ): have split floret tips and most are awned. 3. Lovegrasses ( Eragrostis ) are very flatly folded, have many, many florets and 3 clear floret veins. The 5 veins on cur Blues are obscure; those that look like 3 have the "web." 4. Manna Grasses ( Glyceria ) have more than 5 clear veins. 5. Alkalai Grasses ( Puccinellia ) have spikelets suspiciously like Bluegrass, but if you’re looking at one, you’re standing in a salt marsh or meadow, habitats to which the Bluegrasses have not adapted. Look for these four common (and alien!) species: Second: Learn to pull out a floret from the spikelet. All Long Island Bluegrasses except little Annual Blue have a "web" of "cotton" at the base of the floret. At first you may want to prop your lens so as to have both hands free, and use a tweezers. But with a bit of practice, you can do it bare- handed. The a**,