Laurel wilt disease

Boy, we keep rolling out the good news here.

Laurel wilt disease is the newest problem that may soon reach our area. It is a rapidly spreading non-native fungus spread by the Asian ambrosia beetle that is killing sassafras, laurel, and spicebush (members of the laurel family) in the Southeast. The outlook is not encouraging. This would also be bad news for various swallowtail butterflies adapted to them. This is a very good example of why we need to regulate the provenance of plant material. Tree nurseries have spread many diseases in the past, and it seems, will continue to do so.

Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation

The Asian Longhorn Beetle has found its way to a natural area on Staten Island. ALB was first discovered in the US in street trees in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The insect is thought to have arrived here from woody packing materials from China. ALB has proved to be persistent and able to spread from infestations when eradication has not been completed.

Now it looks like half the trees on the island will need to be cut down and chipped (which is how USDA treats this infestation). It should be interesting to see what comes back - on the Brunswick shale dreg island that is Pralls. Let's just hope this is the first and last natural area where we find these beetles.

Update:
Video of ALB on Pralls Island from the Staten Island Advance.

Drosera in Treehugger!

Our herbarium sheets get a shout out in Treehugger! We are so excited!

Beavers in the Bronx

Of course, this is not the Bronx, it's the Catskills, but you get the idea.

After decades of absence, a male beaver and lodge seen in the Bronx River...amazing!

Biophilia at Work in NYC

What characteristic of park space do New Yorkers value most?

The overwhelming majority say "landscape", which I will liberally interpret as natural area.

(results from 2/09/07 poll)

Laugh, Cry, and a Flora

I think I'm going to present this botanical news in an order other than presented in the title - so as to be more "uplifting", like a Frank Capra film.

First, the flora.

CHECKLIST AND ATLAS OF THE VASCULAR FLORA OF WEST VIRGINIA

This 381-page printed document includes a series of completely revised lists of the vascular plants known to occur outside of cultivation in West Virginia and a dot map indicating from which counties each of the 2503 taxa is recorded.

But wait, there's more! You'll also get -

* a reference to names and classification of all the ferns, trees,wildflowers and other vascular plants and the counties in the state in which they occur;
* which species are native, introduced, adventive, or exotic;
* which are classified as wetland species, which may be invasive to natural areas;
* those needing further field work,
* those needing systematic study, and
* those tracked by the West Virginia Natural Heritage program as state rare.

Here's how to get yours!

Now, for the infuriating...

Again, US Fish and Wildlife does the bidding of their boss, the most unenvironmentally savvy President to ever walk the earth. May his days be filled with his own, personal global warming.

Fury sprouts over agency's failure to protect rare, local plant
from The Daily Sentinel

Raising the ire of conservationists, a rare plant that exists almost
entirely within areas that have been leased for oil and gas development in Mesa and Garfield counties will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act in the foreseeable future, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday...

And a feel good story if there ever was one - how botany brings the people of the world together (see photo).

from The Berkleyan

A plant-based diet for small-planet diplomats
Can botanical exchanges between the U.S. and Iran play the peacemaking role that ping-pong did 30 years ago?

As measured by international time zones or teenage girls' hemlines, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the American West are worlds apart. Yet as viewed through the lens of geography, geology, or climate, the nation- state and western United States have worlds in common . sharing not only the same northern latitudes but, in significant measure, important topographical features (large central plateaus, with interior-draining basins, lying between mountain ranges), Mediterranean climates, active earthquake faults, and (due in large part to these other similarities) a notably rich flora, with hundreds of plant species in common...

Can't you just feel the love?

Backyard Invasions

The curator holds an herbarium sheet. These are invaluable for determining historical floristic compositions of an area, among other things.

(For more about herbarium sheets and their botanical role - click on "store")
The article "New exhibit focuses on invasive plants," is about a new exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, features images of invasive and endangered Pennsylvania plants. The display — both informative and elegant — is a combination of drawings, paintings, etchings, and giclées (digital prints).

Overall the article does a good job of framing the issues, with the exception of the author's final comment about cultivars that "are native plants" that "can satisfy a consumer's wants without harming the environment." This is not entirely true, but that discussion is a post in and of itself.

Educating the public about the ecological costs of invasives is important, as they continue to devastate our systems. Case in point, newly published research shows how a honeysuckle shrub (Lonicera mackii) used in gardens and landscapes harms forests by disturbing the understory layer, tree reproduction and mature tree productivity.

Hardwood stands from southwestern Ohio had noticeably lower species diversity and vegetation cover below the shrubs to detect growth changes 25 years prior to and 25 years following invasion. The growth rates of overstory trees was reduced significantly. The effect of this slowdown were first observed about 6 yrs after invasion with the greatest frequency of negative growth changes occurring 20 yrs after invasion.

The abstract - Hardwood forest invasion by a non-indigenous shrub (Amur honeysuckle) negatively affects overstory productivity (a pdf)
More on the invasiveness of shrub honeysuckles