Florida Trees and Shrubs

Woody Plants New to Florida

Administrator — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:13:58 +0000

Dick Wunderlin, Bruce Hansen, Alan Franck, Keith Bradley, and John Kunzer’s 2010 paper in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (Plants New to Florida, JBRIT, 4(1):349–355) reported 34 species new to Florida, 26 of which were reported for the first time as occurring in the continental United States. Several trees, shrubs, or woody vines were included in their report, including 13 taxa that are either not included or not fully described in the second edition of Trees of Florida or in The Shrubs and Woody Vines of Florida. These taxa will be included and described in future editions of these publications, and will also be described here in future posts.

These taxa, their families, and their habits include:

Celastrus paniculatus Willd. (Celastraceae) [vine]
Cordia curassavica (Jacq.) Roem. & Schult. (Boraginaceae) [tree/shrub]
Cordia dichotoma Forst.f. (Boraginaceae) [tree]
Cydista aequinoctialis (L.) Miers (Bignoniaceae) [vine]
Radermachera sinica (Hance) Hemsl. (Bignoniaceae) [tree/shrub]
Trichosanthes cucumerina L. (Cucurbitaceae) [vine]
Pithecellobium bahamense Northr. (Fabaceae) [shrub]
Senna atomaria (L.) Irwin & Barneby (Fabaceae) [shrub/tree]
Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. subsp. acuta Brooker & M.W. McDonald (Myrtaceae) [tree]
Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr. (Myrtaceae) [tree]
Triplaris melaenodendron (Bertol.) Standl. & Steyerm. (Polygonaceae) [tree]
Dimocarpus longan Lour. (Sapindaceae) [tree]
Solanum umbellatum Mill. (Solanaceae) [shrub]

Taxonomy of the Fraxinus caroliniana (Oleaceae) complex in Florida

Administrator — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 18:07:51 +0000

A 2010 article by Guy Nesom, published in the online journal Phytoneuron and dealing with the taxonomy of the water ash complex, offers an alternative interpretation of what has long been treated as F. caroliniana (popash) in Florida. In his paper, Taxonomy of the Water Ashes: Fraxinus caroliniana, F. cubensis, and F. pauciflora (Oleaceae), Nesom proposes treating the complex as 3 distinct species, distinguishing between them on the basis of leaf and samara morphology. According to Nesom’s analysis, the range of F. cubensis is primarily from about Marion and Sumter counties southward and that of F. caroliniana from Marion County northward and westward, whereas the range of F. pauciflora overlaps completely with F. caroliniana and the more northern part of the range of F. cubensis. Nesom’s paper provides county dot range maps for all three taxa, as well as full descriptions and a key that distinguishes the three from each other as well as from F. americana and F. profunda.

F. caroliniana at Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants

F. caroliniana on PanFlora

Welcome to Florida Trees and Shrubs!

Administrator — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 12:22:31 +0000

Welcome to Florida Trees and shrubs, a web log focusing on Florida’s native and naturalized woody plants. Periodic updates will include notes, observations, discussion, and additions to the woody plants of Florida. Of primary focus will be new additions to the flora, including full descriptions and images of newly desccribed or newly introduced species, notes on nomenclature and taxonomy as they relate to Florida, and announcements of new books and papers that relate to Florida woody plants. Owners of either edition of The Trees of Florida or The Shrubs and Woody Vines of Florida will find additions and enhancements to these books logged here. This log will catalog proposed changes to these volumes in preparation for future editions.

The side menu includes links to important websites germane to my work, as well as links that allow users to be notified when new posts are added. Posts to the site will be more or less irregular, so notification traffic should be light.

Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and criticisms, and to let me know what additions might be helpful.

Thanks!

Gil Nelson

Trees of Florida 2nd ed. Released Jan 2011

Administrator — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:51:28 +0000

I am pleased to announce the release of the second edition of The Trees of Florida, available January 2011. The new edition is completely updated, revised, and considerably expanded over the 1994 edition. I have added descriptions of more than 150 new tree species, most of which are non-native species that have been added to the flora since the last edition. The book now includes treatments of about 528 species, including 317 natives, 200 non-natives, and 11 endemics (species whose distributions are restricted to Florida). The book is illustrated with 610 color images (nearly four times as many as in the 1st edition) and 420 line drawings (up by 60% from the 1st edition). About 98% of the entries are now illustrated. Species accounts now include notes on each species’ nativity, and its status as endangered, threatened, invasive, or potentially invasive. The introduction now includes a key to families and genera, and many species.

The new edition also uses updated nomenclature and taxonomic arrangements, in most cases following the familial arrangemnts proposed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). APG hypotheses are continually being refined as new data become available. Future posts here will discuss and evaluate some of these hypotheses as they relate to Florida’s woody plants. Future posts will also add to or clarify content of Trees of Florida, including descriptions of new introductions to Florida’s woody flora as they become available and discussions of changes in nomenclature and taxonomy.