Atlas of the flora of New England: Monocots except Poaceae & Cyperaceae: Introduction

ABSTRACT. Dot maps are provided to depict the distribution at the county level of the families of Monocotyledons except Poaceae and Cyperaceae growing outside of cultivation in the six New England states of the northeastern United States. The 327 of the 331 taxa (species, subspecies, varieties and hybrids, but not forms) treated are mapped based on specimens in the major herbaria of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, with primary emphasis on the holdings of the New England Botanical Club Herbarium (NEBC). Brief synonymy to account for names used in recent manuals and floras for the area, habitat and chromosome information and common names are also provided.

Key Words: flora, New England, atlas, distribution, Juncaceae, Liliaceae, Orchidaceae, Potamogetonaceae, aquatic plants, rushes, lilies, orchids.

This article is the third in a series that will present the distributions of the vascular flora of New England in the form of dot distribution maps at the county level (see Key Map). The atlas is posted on the Internet at http://neatlas.org/ where we will attempt to keep it updated.

This project encompasses all vascular plants (pteridophytes and spermatophytes) at the rank of species, subspecies and variety growing outside of cultivation in the six New England states. Hybrids are also included, but forms and other ranks below the level of variety are not. The dots are based primarily on voucher specimens in the herbaria of New England representing reproducing populations, or plants persisting long after cultivation when it is uncertain that they are actually naturalized. This third installment includes the families of the Monocotyledoneae except Poaceae and Cyperaceae. The number of taxa treated is 331 of which 327 are mapped. Of these 331, 57 (mostly in Liliaceae) are not native to the region. Future accounts will treat the distribution of the rest of the angiosperms.

We intend to gather this series of articles, together with additional background material, into a separate volume upon completion of all the maps. It is our hope, in the meantime, that these articles will stimulate additional field work to supplement the distributions portrayed in the maps. The New England Botanical Club herbarium, which has proven to be the most important resource for this project, is especially eager to receive specimens documenting range extensions. We also would like to be informed of such specimens in other herbaria. Similarly, because the atlas of the New England flora will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, we are eager to receive notification of published corrections of cytological information and new, documented chromosome counts for taxa in the New England flora.

Materials and methods are as outlined in Angelo and Boufford (1996) and are not repeated here.

TAXONOMY AND FORMAT

The taxonomy and nomenclature adopted for this work essentially follow that of the Flora North America project in progress, except that families, genera and species are arranged alphabetically. Named and unnamed hybrid taxa are placed alphabetically at the end of the genus. Unnamed hybrids combine the names of the progenitors alphabetically by epithet. Taxa that are not native to New England are indicated by uppercase text. Unpublished names are not used, even if publication is pending.

Cited chromosome numbers are taken from indices prepared by Cave (1958a, b; 1959a, b; 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965), Goldblatt (1981, 1984, 1985, 1988), Goldblatt and Johnson (1990, 1991, 1994, 1996), Löve and Löve (1975), Moore (1973, 1974, 1977) and Ornduff (1967, 1968, 1969). Very few of the counts are based on material from New England, but instead reflect counts made from throughout the range of the taxon.

Synonymy is provided primarily with respect to names accepted in standard manuals covering New England published from 1950 onward, including Fernald (1950), Gleason (1952), Gleason and Cronquist (1991), Seymour (1982). Synonyms have not been provided where the distribution for the synonymized name does not include New England.

The following list will aid readers in finding familiar names that have been transferred to other taxa:

ARACEAE (Acorus) => ACORACEAE

AMARYLLIDACEAE => LILIACEAE

Habenaria (in part) => Coeloglossum

Habenaria (in part) => Platanthera

LILIACEAE (Smilax) => SMILACACEAE

LILIACEAE (Yucca) => AGAVACEAE

Lophotocarpus => Sagittaria

Orchis (in part) => Amerorchis

Orchis (in part) => Galearis

Potamogeton (in part) => Stuckenia

Smilacina => Maianthemum

The following species are reported from our area in manuals, but no specimens were seen, or the substantiating specimens were misidentified:

Melanthium hybridum Walter (no specimen seen)

Smilax bona-nox Linnaeus (misidentified: = S. rotundifolia Linnaeus (Sorrie, 1987))

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank the curators and directors of the herbaria of Harvard University, the University of Maine, University of Massachusetts and the University of Vermont for allowing us access to their collections. We particularly appreciate the kindness of David Barrington, Chris Campbell and Karen Searcy for allowing use of the collections in their care outside of normal hours of operation. We are grateful also to Karen Searcy for allowing access to the notebooks of Harry E. Ahles at the University of Massachusetts and for verifying some voucher specimens there. We also appreciate the research into voucher specimens by Arthur Haines. Barre Hellquist gave especially generously of his time and knowledge to provided much information on the aquatic groups. Kancheepuram Gandhi parovided valuable assistance in settling nomenclatural issues. Les Mehrhoff also was very helpful in reviewing our Connecticut data and providing many additional records. Janet Sullivan verified records at NHA. Charles Sheviak provided information relative to Cypripedium parviflorum. Anthony Reznicek searched for a voucher specimen at MICH.