Long Island Botanical Society newsletter

LONG ISLAND
BOTANICAL SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER

Spring Wildflowers
at Shu Swamp Preserve

Spring wildflowers! Visions of these ephemeral
beauties sustain us during the dark days of winter.
And one of Long Island’s special places, Shu
SwaniD, is where this vision becomes vividly alive!

Shu Swamp in Mill Neck is more formally
known as the Charles T, Church Nature Preserve and
the Schmidlapp Lowlands. A combination of
wetlands and upland, Shu Swamp is a dramatic and
beautiful comer of wildlife and nature in Nassau
County. Wondenng what “Shu” means? It is an old
Dutch word, “Sheogh” meaning cascading waters,
and reminds us that Wolver Hollow Road was the
dividing line between the Dutch and English until
(650.

This wooded wetland is fed by the Beaver Brook
system which originates in springs and seeps from
the east hillside along Wolver Hollow Road and in
the upland woods east of Piping Rock Club. The
water of Beaver Brook is clear and cold with a sand
and gravel bottom, and is home to brown trout,
brook lamprey and other fish. The heavy clay soils
in Mill Neck valley and a high groundwater table
have brought about these extensive wetlands.

Highlights

Wildflowers At Shu Swamp Preserve 13

Wildflower Legends 15

A Rosa By Any Other Name 1 7

Plant Communities of Long Island 20

Society News 21

Field Trips 21

Programs 22

covering about 60 acres, with many smaller streams,
springs, and seeps besides Beaver Brook.

Shu Swamp is rewarding at any time of year,
with its towering tulip trees, the brilliant autumn
color of the tupelos and red maples around the pond,
the spears of skunk cabbage already emerging by
New Year’s, or the heady fragrance of Clethra in
late summer. But to my mind the most exciting time
is the last week of April and first week of May.
Everywhere one looks there is a rich but fleeting
variety of wildflowers!

The Lily Family, Liliaceae, with its flower parts
in 3’s is well represented. Trout Lily, Erythronium
americanum, carpets the forest floor with its mottled
leaves. Always more leaves than flowers (it takes 7-
8 years for a trout lily bulb to mature to flowering
size), still one can find concentrations of these
delicate creamy-yellow, 6-petaled lilies often at the
base of the tulip tree tmnks. Wake Robin, Trillium
erectum, adds its deep maroon red; and in a few
places one can find the white form, album, as well as
intermediate hues. Wild Oats, Uvularia sessilifolia.

American Dog Violet {Viola conspersd), a rare
species on L.I. occurring at Shu Swamp Preserve

LI. Boranical Society Mav - June 1996 , Page 13

Shu Swamp, continued from page 13

with pendant creamy bells, grows in several places
in the Schmidlapp lowlands and seems to be increas-
ing. Canada Mayflower, Maianthemum canadensis,
with small racemes of white flowers is everywhere,
almost a groundcover. These bloom about a week
later. False Hellebore, Veratrum viride, provides
contrast with its bold deeply pleated leaves, which I
find more interesting than the later yellowish green
flowers. Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum,
and Solomon’s Plume, Smilacina racemosa, grow
side by side, especially along Beaver Brook.

Also in the Liliaceae are large patches of Ramp
or Wild Leek, Allium tricoccum. They grow both in
the wetter areas and on the upland hillside, but in
early spring we see only the leaves. Not until
midsummer when the leaves are gone does Wild
Leek produce its umbel of creamy white flowers.
Ramp festivals in West Virginia and North Carolina
celebrate this most pungent of the onion tribe, but of
course they are protected in Shu Swamp, Turk’s
Cap Lily, Lilium superbum, is yet another member
of the Lily family whose leaves we make a mental
note of, so that we can come back to admire this
elegant orange-red lily in midsummer. Recently
Barbara Conolly counted 25 of these lovely lilies in
one area under wiich-hazei shrubs.

Another group of wild flowers that adds to the
early spring show is the Buttercup family,
Ranunculaceae. One of the earliest to bloom in the
swamp is Marsh Marigold, Caltha palustris, whose
scientific name means “goblet of the swamp”.
Vibrant showy yellow flowers up to 1 1/2" wide are
found along the smaller streams and Beaver Brook.
These are not to be confused with Lesser Celandine,
Ranunculus ficaria, a weedy member of the family
that has been on the increase in Shu Swamp as well
as nearby lawns and gardens. Marsh Marigold has
clusters of deep yellow flowers, actually 5-9 sepals
with no petals, held up above the heart shaped
leaves. At least 5 other buttercups can be seen:
Kidney-leaved Buttercup, Tall Buttercup, Hooked
Buttercup, Bristly Buttercup and Swamp Buttercup -
all adding their vivid yellow to the swamp. The
Wood Anemone, Anemone quinquefolia, adds
delicate patches of white to pinkish flowers (5
sepals) in somewhat drier areas. Try to pick a sunny
day, for these as well as some of the other ephemeral
spring flowers are reluctant to open on overcast
days.

Along side of, and even mixed in with the Wood
Anemone, is another charming wildflower. Spring
Beauty, Claytonia virginica. Its fleshy grasslike
leaves are a clue to its being a member of the
Purslane family. This is a flower to look very
closely at, even with a lOx lens: dark pink veins and
almost magenta-pink stamens can best be appreci-
ated this way. Spring Beauty is a rarity on Long
Island, and I’m happy to report that it is definitely
increasing in the Schmidlapp lowlands !

Perhaps the signature of a wet woodland is Skunk
Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, in the Arum
family, Araceae. Its green spears poke up even
through ice in the wetter areas, and by late winter it
is in flower. The flowers are fascinating: at ground
level a purple-brown and green mottled hood
(spathe) protects the knob-shaped cluster of indi-
vidual flowers inside (the spadix). The flowers
generate their own heat, maintaining the air inside
the spathe at a constant 72 degrees, as long as the
outside air is above freezing. The plants do this by
metabolizing stored starch in their large rootstock.
There is still more to be understood here, but it does
attract the earliest insect pollinators. You can still
find many Skunk Cabbage flowers at the end of
April, although by then the large leaves make it a
game of hide-and-seek.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, also in
the Arum family, brings to mind a preacher (the
spadix) standing in his pulpit with the arched hood
(the spathe). In wetter areas of Shu Swamp there are
many shades of jacks, from pale green stripes to
deep mahogany, emerging as sharp spears from the
muck.

And violets ! What would spring be without
violets! Blooming right alongside of Marsh Mari-
golds, sometimes making a trio with the woolly
fiddleheads of Cinnamon Fern, is the Marsh Blue
Violet, Viola cucullata. The blue-violet flowers,
with a darker patch towards the center, stand up
above their leaves to show themselves off. Much

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Shu Swamp, continued from page 14

shyer and rarer is the tiny paler Dog Violet, Viola
conspersa, seen in one location along Beaver Brook.
This is a stemmed violet, with leaves and flowers on
the same stem. Our brighter Common Blue Violet,
Viola sororia, is found here and there in the swamp,
and the Northern White Violet, Viola pallens, is
tucked away in some more hidden comers.

The Mustard family, Brassicaceae (Cmciferae),
with its 4-petaled flowers in the shape of a cross is
also counted among this spring round-up. Garlic
Mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is ubiquitous. Early
Winter Cress, Barbarea vema, and Yellow Rocket
or Common Winter Cress, B. vulgaris, are here and
there in the open parts; and in wetter spots Pennsyl-
vania Bittercress, Cardamine pensylvanica, whose
flowers are white, not yellow. Watercress, Nastur-
tium officinale, with its small white flowers and
pungent leaves grows right in the fast-moving water
of Beaver Brook. Whitlow Grass, Draba vema,
with tiny flowers grows in the small meadow next to
the parking area.

While these flowers in the Mustard family are
quite common, there are still other rare finds in Shu
Swamp. Just emerging in the beginning of May are
the odd flowering spikes of an extensive colony of
Squawroot, Conopholis americana. These parasitic
plants resemble pine cones with their overlapping
brown scales and lack of chlorophyll; although they
live off the roots of black oaks, they are tme flower-
ing plants. This large healthy colony is near the
upland path in the Church preserve.

Another not-to-be-missed charmer. Dwarf
Ginseng, Panax trifolius, has delicate little white
umbels of flowers and covers the ground in one area
of the Schmidlapp lowlands.

All these and more reward the sharp-eyed visitor
in early spring, along with the emerging fiddleheads
of a rich fem flora. The promise of later blooming
wildflowers such as the Turk’s Cap Lily, Yellow
Flag Iris, Star Flower, and even Cardinal Rower,
keep one coming back again and again.

Shu Swamp, across from the Mill Neck railroad
station, is open every day except Friday. It is
preserved and managed by the North Shore Wildlife
Sanctuary, whose able warden is Bob Homosky.

Carol Johnston, Locust Valley

Wildflower Legends

Anemone - Buttercup - Hepatica - Bloodroot....
the mere mention of these ephemeral wildflowers
brings to mind an image of warm spring days,
especially in this snowiest of winters. To the
botanist, the field season has begun! But to my
mind, these plants evoke other images. Where do
these names originate? How were these plants used
by ancient people? And - the question that inevita-
bly arises on field trips - how did people long ago
even think to use certain herbs to treat their ills?

Some names are obvious. For example, Canada
Mayflower, Maianthemum canadense, either way,
the name tells when and where the plant could be
found. Even its older nickname of Bead Ruby is
quite descriptive of its red fruit. Anemone or
Windflower, comes from the Greek god of the winds
on Mount Olympus. “Buttercup” is straightforward
enough, due to the color of the flower, but Ranuncu-
lus? The herpetologists among us should recognize
Rana as a genus of frog; frogs live in a watery
environment, as do many species of buttercup! Yes,
sometimes the name origins require a stretch of the
imagination, but that’s half the fun.

Herbal lore is steeped in ancient tradition. In
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and ancient Greece, it was
believed that sickness was manifested by evil spirits.
The gods were physicians who taught the knowledge

In ancient times Hepaticas were thought to cure liver
ailments due to the shape and color of the leaves
(Doctrine of Signatures).

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Page 15

Legends, continued froni page 15

of herbs and their medicinal properties to man. It
was in classical Greece that a scientific basis to
herbal medicine was added. One philosophy of
particular note was the Doctrine of Signatures,
which became popular in the 16th century. Codified
in Europe by a controversial physician named
Paracelsus, this theory claimed that every plant acts
as its own definition of medical application, by
resembling a part of the body or the cause of the
affliction. William Coles, an English herbalist wrote
in 1656, “God had not only stamped on plants a
distinct form, but also given them particular signa-
tures, whereby a man may read even in legible
characters the use of them.” Nicholas Culpeper
(1616-1654) was an influential supporter of the
Doctrine, as well as of astrological theories. His
Herbal published in 1652 was very successful, the
first such work written for ordinary people to use
herbs in their everyday lives.

The classic example of the Doctrine of Signatures
is the Hepatica. With its three-lobed leaves, it was
thought to be useful in liver disease, a remedy that
was used for centuries. In fact, a boom in liver tonic
in the 1880’ s led to the consumption of over 450,000
pounds of this plant in a single year. Bloodroot,
Sanguinaria canadensis, is named for its bright red
or orange sap - obviously a sign for illnesses of the
blood. Even its Latin name is derived from the word
for blood. This plant is currently used commercially
in some toothpastes and anti-plaque dental rinses.
Eyebdght {Euphrasia nemorosa); at one time used

Bloodroot: named for the orange-red juice in its roots
and stem (illustration from Durant, 1976).

for vision problems, was named for a black pupil-
like spot in the corolla. The leaves of Earth-smoke
or fumitory (Fumaria officinalis) were smoked for
disorders of the head, and in the Middle Ages were
used to drive away evil spirits in exorcisms. And
Vipers bugloss {Echium vulgare) got a reputation for
neutralizing the bites of serpents and adders, because
the seed looks like the head of a snake and the spots
on the stem resemble those on its skin.

Some of the legends surrounding our common
wildflowers can be quite intriguing. If the leaf of St.
Johns wort {Hypericum perforatum) is held to the
light, you will see dots resembling the pores in our
skin. This meant that this plant could be used for
cuts and skin ailments. The herb is still used in folk
medicine, dried and soaked in oil as a liniment. Be
careful if you decide to try it, however - it could lead
to a photosensitive reaction. St. Johnswort has even
more of an intriguing history. Named in honor of St.
John the Baptist, the herb was collected on the day
of Midsummer, June 24, to protect a house from
goblins, devils, and witches. Hawkweeds
{Hieracium, from the Greek word hierax, hawk)
were thought to be eaten by hawks to improve their
eyesight. The little black hairs that cover the stem,
looking like the dust on a coal miner, gave rise to the
nickname “grim the collier.” Possibly the most
outrageous legend surrounds the loosestrifes,
however. Named for King Lysimachus, the plant
was known to have calming properties. One day the
good king, taking a shortcut through a pasture, was
chased by an irate bull. He fed the animal some of
this herb, thereby “loosing the bull of its strife” or
unruliness!

These are only a few of the tales that have arisen
through the centuries, some commonplace, some
sensible, and some that stir the imagination to a
distant past. Knowing the identification of a plant is
certainly valuable, but learning the “personality”
behind the name gives an added dimension to our
field studies. If you have become as fascinated as I
have, I recommend reading Wildflower Folklore by
Laura C. Martin, The History and Folklore of North
American Wildflowers by Timothy Coffey, and the
Peterson Field Guides to Edible Plants and Medici-
nal Plants for a start. It’s an interest that will not
fail to enthrall you.

Lois Lindberg, Oyster Bay Cove

LL Botanical Society

May - June 1996

Page 16

A Rosa By Any Other Name...

There are some things that can be a real nuisance
to those who enjoy finding local plants and learning
about them. Ticks, for one thing; really rainy days
for another. But at least in these cases you can tuck
your pants into your socks, or stay indooors for the
day and read a wildflower guide. Sadly, there is no
cure for one other kind of nuisance: the all-too-
frequent changes that occur in the scientific names
of your favorite plants. How annoying that the Cut-
leafed Toothwort, Dentaria laciniata (best seen
locally at Big Reed in Montauk County Park) now is
to be called Cardamine concatenata !

You probably began to learn these Latin-like
tongue-twisters in the first place by listening to
persuasive voices that said things like “Well, it’s not
so tough. Did you know that you are already using
scientific names when you talk about a Rhododen-
dron or a Gladiolus?” Or “These names allow
scientists from different countries to communicate
unambiguously about organisms of common inter-
est.” Or “English names for many kinds of plants
are different from region to region, so sometimes it
is hard to know what plant someone is talking about.
My Tulip Tree is someone else’s Yellow Poplar, or
Whitewood or Tulip Poplar, but everybody knows
Liriodendron tulipifera.”

But the statement that really strikes a nerve as
you are wincing from your recent toothwort-ache is
the one that says “the name change was the result of
the application of rules of the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature, a document that was drawn
up to bring stability to the naming of plants.” Yeah,
right!

Yet it really does make sense, and I am hoping to
explain here why this is so.

First let me introduce the 18th century Swedish
naturalist Carolus Linnaeus. Meticulous, highly
organized cind well respected by his contemporaries,
Linnaeus contributed in an important way to the
development of taxonomic nomenclature, the
science of the naming of organisms, by consistently
using two-part names — what we now call binomials.
Prior to Linnaeus the names of plants and animals
were mostly short Latin descriptions (polynomials).
The name of the common Buttercup for example

was given as Ranunculus foliis peltatis
quinquangularibus multipartitis laciniis linearibus
caule multifloro in Adrian van Royen’s Florae
Leydensis Prodromus of 1740. Linnaeus shortened
this polynomial to consist only of the genus name
plus a single descriptive adjective, i.e.. Ranunculus
acris. Here, the second word, called the specific
epithet, refers to the bitter or acrid (“acris”) herbage
of this species. Linnaeus continued the long-held
practice of coining names in Latin, the language of
the educated.

In 1753 Linnaeus published Species Plantarum
and in 1758 Sy sterna Naturae, the results of his
painstaking work on the taxonomy and nomenclature
of plants and animals respectively. With a few
exceptions, binomial nomenclature caught on
quickly and Linnaeus’ works became the field
guides of their day. Scientists describing new
species christened them with binomial names. And
students in botany classes were undoubtedly thank-
ful that they did not have to memorize lengthy
polynomials.

These were times of colonialist expansion.
Already, before Species Plantarum, Pehr Kalm and
John Clayton had been sending plant specimens to
Europe that they had collected in the American

Carl (or Carolus) Linnaeus (von Linne); 1707-1778.

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Nomenclature, continued from page 17

colonies. And by the middle of the nineteenth
century, every European country that was anybody
had colonies all over the Americas, Africa, and the
Far East. Territories were claimed by England,
France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, and the
Netherlands among others. Virtually every coloniz-
ing expedition included at least one naturalist to
gather specimens for the museums back home. As a
result, European institutions experienced a great
influx of materials, much of it from the tropics, and
this in turn gave rise to a tremendous boom in the
description of species new to science.

And it was here that two particularly troublesome
problems with scientific names became especially
obvious: one, that some species were being given
more than one name; and two, that some names were
being used to describe two or more entirely different
species. This probably came about partly because of
nationalistic and inter- institutional jealousies and
rivalries that caused scientists to communicate less
than they should have. One widespread African
species that I work with, Kosteletzkya buettneri, was
given three different names in 1890, 1894, and 1899
by a German, an Englishman, and a Belgian respec-
tively. In another case in the same genus, two
distinctly different species, one from western
Mexico and another from tropical west Africa were
given the same name, Kosteletzkya stellata, in 1895
by an American and in 1928 by two Englishmen
respectively.

Naturally, this was a situation that, if not cor-
rected, would lead to large-scale confusion. And sp
the first codes of botanical nomenclature came about
as attempts to set up rules governing the naming of
plants. From tentative beginnings in 1867, through a
period of two or three conflicting codes all of which
championed good ideas, the first truly unified and
international code came out of a Cambridge, En-
gland meeting in 1924. Since 1950 an International
Botanical Congress has met every few years, most
recently in Tokyo in 1993, and one of the activities at
the congresses has been to vote upon proposals for
changes in the Code. The resulting changes have
consisted primarily of refinements, clarifications and
amendments, the overall framework having already
been fairly well settled.

[As an aside I might mention that a separate Code
of Aological Nomenclature has been developed for
the naming of animals. Ironically, though rules in

j;

both codes legislate against using the same name for
two different entities in their respective kingdoms
(see discussion below), there is nothing to prevent,
for example, a genus of animal and a genus of plant
from having the same name. Enallagma is both a
genus closely related to the Calabash Tree in the
Bignonia Family, and a genus of damselflies com-
monly called Bluets in the family Coenagrionidae.]

Two major features of the Botanical Code are the
Type Method and the Principle of Priority. The
Type Method attempts to tie each published scien-
tific name to an herbarium specimen (or sometimes
an illustration) that an author used when he de-
scribed his new plant. “Type” doesn’t mean typical,
nor is a type specimen to be given special weight in
subsequent attempts to characterize a species.
Typification is simply a way of permanently associ-
ating a name with a real entity from nature. Hibis-
cus dasycalyx, a globally rare Texas endemic
Hibiscus, was named and described by S. F. Blake
and I. Shiller in 1958. The type is a collection from
Trinity Co., TX made on 23 June 1955 by Ivan
Shiller (his collection no. 231) and deposited under
accession no. 2,261,376 in the United States National
Herbarium (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington,
D.C. Nowadays authors of new names are required
to designate types at the same time that their new
species is described, but for earlier names sometimes
considerable sleuthing is required to determine the
type.

The Principle of Priority simply says that the first
name to be given to a species is the one that must be
used. This makes good, common sense and in fact
was the practice of most botanists even before any
Code appeared. Now there could be no doubt as to
the correct name among a number of competing
names, or “Synonyms.” The Kosteletzkya buettneri
mentioned earlier got that name because the author
Giirke published it in 1890, beating out the other two
contenders by four and nine years respectively.

The Principle of Priority has either settled or
confirmed the correctness of tens of thousands of
plant names and hence has led to a real nomencla-
tural stability. Unfortunately, it has also set the
stage for occasional changes in established nomen-
clature that result from the unearthing of still earlier
names. (I should add here that in considering earlier
names, one need go back only as far as 1753 and
Linnaeus’ Species Plantarum. The Code says that
anything earlier is not to be considered for priority

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Nomenclature, continued from page 18

purposes.) The Halberd-leafed Rose Mallow,
reported for the first time in New York within the
last decade and widely distributed in the eastern
United States, has been known for years as Hibiscus
militaris, a name published in 1788. But now the
plant has to be called Hibiscus laevis because this
name has turned up in a book entitled Auctarium ad
Synopsim Methodicam Stirpium Horti Reg.
Taurinensis about the gardens in the city of Turin,
Italy (Allioni, 1774). It seems that a plant of this
species was growing in one of these gardens, appar-
ently from seeds that had been brought earlier from
America and introduced into cultivation.

Another situation where unsuspected older names
are sometimes found is when an earlier author,
through error or ignorance, has described a new
plant but has placed it in a very different genus than
the one to which it correctly belongs. That can mean
that when someone else is attempting to find the
correct name of a particular species, he hasn’t a clue
that a possibly earlier name is lurking out there in
the literature somewhere.

This happened to me once. There is a widespread
Kosteletzkya of lowland Mexico and the Caribbean
region that had been known for decades by the 1824
name K. pentasperma until I found that the name
could no longer be used (more about that shortly).
That meant looking for other available names among
the synonyms. According to the Principle of Priority
I ought to have adopted the next oldest name, K.
tampicensis (1830), but mostly by accident I discov-
ered two earlier names whose relationship to
Kosteletzkya had previously gone unnoticed: Sida
camea (1824) and a Linnaean name Melochia
depressa (1753). The genus Sida is in the same
family (Malvaceae) as Kosteletzkya but they are
about as far apart within the family as they can be.
Melochia is in a different family altogether, the
Sterculiaceae or Cacao Family, but the types of the
two names, that is the specimens to which the names
are “attached,” clearly belong to the species that has
been called K. pentasperma. The earliest name
being Linnaeus’, that name (actually its specific
epithet) must be used for the Mexican-Caribbean
species. It is now known as Kosteletzkya depressa.

In the previous paragraph I said that Kosteletzkya
pentasperma (1824) could no longer be used. This is
because I discovered that the same name had been

published in 1822 by someone else for a different
species of Kosteletzkya. When the names for two
different plants are the same they are called “hom-
onyms” and, not surprisingly, homonyms are not
permitted in plant nomenclature. By the Principle of
Priority, the earlier-named of the two species gets to
keep the name, and the plant with the later (younger)
homonym must be given a different name in accor-
dance with the Code, as was described in the para-
graph above.

You may recall another case of homonymy
mentioned earlier, in which a species from West
Africa and a different species from western Mexico
were both named Kosteletzkya stellata. In this case
the earlier (1895) Mexican species keeps the shared
name, and the West African (1928) species has to get
a different name — in this case a new one, because
there are no synonyms available to choose from. I
am calling it Kosteletzkya semota though it is not my
intention to publish it here.

I hope that I have shed some light on the apparent
paradox that the very rules that are intended to
promote stability can also seem occasionally to
combat stability. And since I know that being
provided with insight into the causes of a problem
doesn’t necessarily make one any happier about the
problem itself, I offer this glimmer of hope. There
has been for some time a provision in the Code that
allows one to propose keeping a genus name that has
long been in use even though an earlier but unfamil-
iar name has been found. Such proposals for
exceptions to the rules of the Code go to a commit-
tee for consideration and are voted upon at an
International Botanical Congress. There is by now a
substancial list of these conserved genus names or
nomina conservanda, among them Hibiscus and
Kosteletzkya, which, had they not been conserved
some years ago, would have been called
Malvaviscus and Thomtonia in the discussion here.
Moreover, within the last ten or fifteen years it has
become possible to propose the conservation of
species names as well, and the actions and spirit of
the 1993 Tokyo Congress were such as to make such
conservation both easier and more desirable to
accomplish in the future.

Now if we could only establish rules about ticks
and the weather.

Skip Blanchard, Long Island University
C. W. Post Center

LI. Botanical Society

May - June 1996

Page 19

Plant Communities of
Long Island, New York

The list of plant communities is largely based
upon the classification system of Reschke (1990):
“Ecological Communities of New York State.”

Marine System

1 . Marine eelgrass meadow

2. Marine intertidal mudflats*

3. Marine intertidal gravel/sand beach*

4. Marine rocky intertidal*

Estuarine System

5. Tidal river

6. Tidal creek

7. Brackish subtidal aquatic bed

8. High salt marsh

9. Low salt marsh

10. Salt panne

11. Salt shrub

12. Coastal salt pond

13. Brackish tidal marsh

14. Brackish intertidal mudflats

15. Brackish intertidal shore

Riverine System

16. Marsh headwater stream

17. Intermittent stream

18. Coastal plain stream

Lacustrine System

19. Coastal plain pond

20. Perched pond

Palustrine System
(open, mineral soil wetlands)

2 1 . Deep emergent marsh

22. Shallow emergent marsh

23. Shrub swamp

24. Coastal plain pond shore

25. Brackish interdunal swales

26. Brackish meadow

27. Pine barrens vernal pond

28. Pine barrens shrub swamp

*The 5-kingdom system of classification does not
include marine algae in the Plant Kingdom.

Palustrine System (con't)
(open peatlands)

29. Sedge meadow

30. Coastal plain poor fen

3 1 . Sea level fen

32. Highbush blueberry bog thicket

(forested, mineral soil wetland)

33. Red maple-tupelo swamp

34. Vernal pond

(forested peatlands)

35. Coastal plain Atlantic white cedar swamp

Terrestrial System
(open uplands)

36. Maritime beach

37. Maritime dunes

38. Maritime interdunal swale

39. Maritime shrubland

40. Maritime heathland

4 1 . Maritime grassland

42. Hempstead Plains grassland

43. Successional blueberry heath

44. Successional old field

45. Successional shrubland

(barrens and woodlands)

46. Dwarf pine plains

47. Pitch pine-scrub oak barrens

48. Pitch pine-oak-heath woodland

49. Maritime pitch pine-heath barrens

50. Successional red cedar woodland

(forested uplands)

5 1 . Maritime holly-oak forest

52. Maritime oak forest

53. Maritime beech forest

54. Maritime red cedar forest

55. Pitch pine-oak forest

56. Appalachian oak-hickory forest

57. Chestnut oak forest

58. Oak-tulip tree forest

59. White pine-oak forest

60. Successional southern hardwoods

61 . Successional maritime forest

Eric Lamont Riverhead

LI. Botanical Society

May - June 1 996

Page 20

Society News

March Meeting: Glenn Richard reported that the
newly sprouted oak leaves in the Pine Barrens burn site
(“Sunrise Fire”) had kept their green color into February.
Gary Kennen reported that he collected and tried to
germinate iOOO serotinous Pitch Pine seeds without
success: he requested ideas: Too hot a fire? Is dormancy
required? Could the seeds be dead fromold age? A
suggestion was made to collect more seeds, scarify them
by shaking in a can of sand, and try again. Member’s
Night began with a few slides of the largest flower in the
world, Rajflesia arnoldii, (as much as 3 feet across)
photographed in Indonesia by Zu Proly; Ray Welch
showed “thpn-^fnd-now” photos of a Target Lichen on Mt.
Washington; Tom Stock had members identifying plants
from famous paintings; Steve Clemants showed slides
from the Yucatan; Skip Blanchard showed slides of
orchids; Barbara ConoIIy brought 9 albums of LIBS
Field I’rip Photos since 1987.

April Meeting: Dispite a record 12 inches of snow
that began falling during the early evening, 13 members
attended the meeting. The speaker cancelled, but with
foresight Skip Blanchard brought slides on plant/insect
interactions, and Eric Lamont showed wildflowers of the
Smoky Mts. and Mt. Washington. Carol Johnston
announced that 75-80% of all honey bees on L.I. are dead
due to an exotic mite infestation.

Another Golf Course Proposal

LIBS member Art Cooley has requested help in preparing
a plant inventory for the 260 acre Havens property, owned
by Suffolk Co., located in Center Moriches along the west
shore of the Terrels River and bordering Great South Bay,
The County purchased the property in 1989 and set it
aside as open space, but now wants to develop it into a
golf course. Art has already located a quarter acre clone
of Clubmoss {Lycopodium obscurum) and numerous old
trees, but requests additional help in locating significant
plants. If interested, please call Art at 5 16/ 289-2955.

Education Committee Report

On Earth Day, April 2 1st, Mary Laura Lamont repre-
sented LIBS at Quogue Wildlife Refuge by leading a
workshop and hike into the Pine Barrens, followed by a
hike through some burned areas of the “Sunrise Fire” site
in Westhampton (the day was also sponsored by Moriches
Bay Audubon Society). On June 9th Tom Stock will
represent LIBS at the Sweetbrier Nature Center by
offering a hands-on activity program on mosses and ferns.

Executive Board Meeting

A meeting of the Executive Board will be held on 28 May
1996 at 7:15pm (before the flora committee meeting) at
the Planting Fields Arboretum Library. All members are
welcome.

Field Trips

5 May 1996 (Sunday), ALLEY POND PARK WOODS;
Leader: Patrick Cooney (914/478-1803). Meet at 10am
at the parking lot of Alley Pond Park woods, across from
the grounds of Creedmoor Psychiatric Center. (There is a
second parking lot to the west of this parking lot.) Note
that this is not Alley Pond proper, which is located on
Northern Blvd. DIRECTIONS from Nassau Co.: take
Northern State Pkwy west to the Queens border, at which
point Northern State turns into Grand Central Pkwy; pass
over Cross Island Pkwy; travel west for a very short
distance and very quickly exit for the parking lot of Alley
Pond Park woods. Bring lunch, ample beverage, insect
repellent, and be prepered for wet walking. (Joint trip
with the Torrey Botanical Club.)

18 May 1996 (Saturday), 10am, PINE BARRENS
BURN SITE; Leader: Bnice Lund (516/367-3225).

Come along on a half day walk to botanize through the
heart of last summers “Sunrise Fire” burn area to see what
botanical surprises might be appearing in this first season
of regrowth after the fire. We’ll also visit a bit of the
globally rare dwarf pine barrens and for contrast, drop
into a wetland valley - unexpected in these dry pine
barrens. Be prepared for strenuous walking in loose sand.
Especially if it’s sunny and warm, you may want a hat,
sunscreen, and water. DIRECTIONS; Take Exit 63 on
Sunrise Hwy (Rte. 27) in Southampton. Go south on Rte.
3 1 for 1 .5 mi. Turn right at the light onto Stewart Ave.

Go through the Coast Guard housing complex and park in
the lot be.fide the town ball field .and tennis courts.

26 May 1996 (Sunday), 2-4pm, HOFSTRA UNIVER-
SITY ARBORETUM; Leader: Tom Stock. “Botany,
Sculpture & History” of the 7000 tree specimens (com-
prising 250 species) of the Arboretum. DIRECTIONS:
Hofstra University is located in Nassau Co. on Hempstead
Tpke just west of Meadowbrook Pkwy; meet in the
parking lot in the Greenway, north of the Student Center.

15 June 1996 (Saturday), SHRUB-A-THON. Walk on
the wild side with B^tty Lotowycz and Barbara ConoIIy
to list all the shrubs we can at Quogue and on the South
Fork. Meet at Quogue Wildlife Refuge at 9:30am. Bring
lunch. DIRECTIONS: Take Exit 64 on Sunrise Hwy
(Rte. 27) to Rte. 104 (Quogue-Riverhead Rd) south; travel
about 2 mi. and turn right (west) on Old Country Rd; the
Refuge is less than 1 mi. down the road, north of the
railroad tracks.

Mark your calendar for these future field trips (details to follow
in the next issue of the Newsletter);

20 July 1996, Joralemon Park, Albany Co., NY. Fern-rich,
calcareous woodlands; Leader: A1 Breisch.

10 August 1996, Pound Ridge, NY. Leader: Skip Blanchard.

21 September 1996, Floyd Bennett Field, Gateway Natl.
Recreation Area; Leader: Patrick Cooney.

s

L.I. Botanical Society May - June 1996 Page 21

LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY
Founded: 1986; Incorporated: 1989.

The Long Island Botanical Society is dedicated to the promotion of
field botany and a greater understanding of the plants that grow
wild on Long Island, New York.

PROGRAMS

14 May 1996 - 7:30 pm*. Dr. Eric Lament

Eric Lament
Skip Blanchard
Carol Johnston
Barbara Conolly
Jane Blanchard
Steven Clemants
Glenn Richard
Allan Lindberg
Lois Lindberg
John Turner
Louise Harrison
Mary Laura Lament
Tom Stock
Nancy Smith
Betty Lotowycz
Skip Blanchard
Steven Clemants
Eric Lament

Membership ^

Membership is'open to all, and we welcome new members.
Annual dues are SI 0. For membership, make your check payable
to LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY ai|d mail to: Lois
Lindberg, Membership Chairperson, 45 Sandy Bill Road, Oyster
Bay, NY 11771-3111

~ ' ^ JM

"Plant Communities of Long Island. NY:"

Muttontown Preserve Nature Center, East
Norwich. Slides & lecture, see page 20 for more
information.

11 June 1996 - 3rd Annual LIBS Barbecue
Glenn Richard will once again host this year's
evening of activities at the Swan Pond Biologi-
cal Station of SUNY at Calverton.

Please see the enclosed flier for specific
information.

^Refreshments Sc informal talk begins at 7:30pm
the meeting starts at 8pm. For directions to
Muttontown Preserve call 516-571-8500.

President
Vice President
Treasurer
Rec'rd Sec'y
Cor'sp Sec’y
Local Flora
Field Trip

Membership

Conservation

Education

Hospitality

Program

Editor

LONG ISLAND BOTANICAL SOCIETY
c/o Muttontown Preserve
Muttontown Lane
East Norwich, New York 1 1732

1

W

LL Boranical Society

May - June 1996

Page 22