Juglans nigra (black walnut) is widely distributed throughout the US eastern forest, with high concentrations occurring in Missouri and the Ohio and Tennessee River basins. It is an extremely desirable tree for wildlife forage and timber production on forest land, and for shade, aesthetics, and wildlife forage in urban areas. Current (2009–2010) estimates from US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data indicated that there were 306 million live black walnut trees in the eastern United States with a live volume totaling 112.76 million cubic meters (m³). This resource is currently threatened by the newly discovered presence of thousand cankers disease (TCD) in Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. Thousand cankers disease may have been present in these areas for at least 10 years prior to discovery; however, no evidence of TCD in the forest at large was apparent in the crown condition and mortality data collected by FIA between 2000 and 2010. During this time period black walnut crown conditions were within the range of what is typically considered normal and healthy for hardwood trees and dead black walnut accounted for < 5% of the total number of black walnut trees in 82% of the counties where black walnut occurred. Lack of evidence of TCD in our study could be due to its actual absence or to an inability of the inventory and monitoring system to detect its presence.

Logging has recently been used as a restoration tool in Florida scrub, a pyrogenic shrubland ecosystem that often develops a pine canopy in the absence of fire. We studied the effects of logging and fire, alone and in combination, on fire-suppressed Florida scrub on the Lake Wales Ridge in south-central Florida. Restoration goals were both structural (reduce pine canopy, hardwood subcanopy, shrub stem density; increase bare sand) and compositional (increase rare plant occupancy and forb diversity). In 2- and 5-yr posttreatment surveys, all treatments significantly reduced pine density and the hardwood subcanopy relative to the control, but no treatment was successful in reducing shrub stem densities. Burning alone exposed sandy substrate for forb recruitment, but the logging treatments created significantly larger areas of bare sand. Treatments had little effect on species richness and rare species abundance, but two rare species recruited into logged plots. The weak treatment effects on forbs likely reflect the long period of fire suppression, a pattern seen in other studies. All treatments, especially logging, increased graminoid occupancy; although the log-and-burn treatment initially increased forb occupancy, the effect was short-lived. The most significant effects of logging were large-scale soil disturbance and increased graminoid abundance. Overall, both fire and logging achieved most short-term (2–4 yr) management goals. However, the large-scale soil disturbance caused by logging may facilitate invasion of exotics and ruderals and limit the effectiveness of prescribed burning. We conclude that fire continues to be the best practice for restoration of Florida scrub.

Plant species distributions and transitions between vegetation types are determined by numerous factors, including disturbances such as fire. Documentation of past changes in the distribution and structure of fire-dependent ecosystems is necessary to assess the success of land management in maintaining historic vegetation types. In our study system—longleaf pine (Pinus palustris)-wiregrass (Aristida stricta) savannas and embedded wetlands (i.e., pocosins)—wiregrass is dependent on frequent burning. We used soil carbon (C) isotopes to test for past changes in the abundance of wiregrass and for shifts in the ecotone between savanna and pocosin in four sites at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Wiregrass has a C₄ photosynthetic pathway and therefore produces organic matter enriched in ¹³C compared to other dominant species in the community that have a C₃ photosynthetic pathway. At each of the four sites, we measured profiles of soil δ¹³C to a depth of 1 m at four locations along the vegetation gradient from upland savannas to lowland pocosins. Surface soil δ¹³C, which reflects C inputs from current vegetation, did not differ along the gradient despite a decrease in wiregrass cover from savanna, where it is abundant, to pocosin, where it is absent. Enrichment of soil δ¹³C with depth was indistinguishable from effects of decomposition, indicating that past variation in the abundance and distribution of wiregrass was not detectable in our study sites. Our results suggest that wiregrass currently does not produce, and historically has not produced, enough biomass to influence soil δ¹³C values along the savanna-pocosin gradient.

A 1.21-ha plot was established in a mature pine–hardwood forest (Hyatt's Woods) along a low stream terrace in southeastern Arkansas. Compositionally, this stand had considerable arboreal richness, with 26 different tree species ≥9 cm in diameter. Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) contributed 42% of the stand's 37.1 m²/ha of basal area; the remaining fraction included baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) and 24 hardwood species (no other single taxon exceeded 12%). Only a limited volume (15.2 m³/ha) of dead wood was encountered. The large size of the dominant conifers and abundance of high wood density hardwoods at Hyatt's Woods yielded a considerable quantity of biomass—at 317 Mg/ha, few stands in the region have more. With all species combined, tree stem location exhibited a random spatial pattern, but this changed when individual species were considered. For example, loblolly pine tended to be clustered on the higher portions of this relatively flat site, while white oak (Quercus alba) was well distributed across Hyatt's Woods, and baldcypress was associated with two abandoned stream channels. Unmanaged streamside forests in southeastern Arkansas usually contain high levels of arboreal diversity and biomass, and sometimes possess biological legacies that can date back centuries. These stands retain important structural and ecosystem service components in an otherwise increasingly fragmented and intensively managed landscape.

In order to provide vegetation managers with information on roadside habitats in West Virginia, a statewide roadside vegetation study was conducted in 2000. The vegetation along nearly 1,500 km of four-lane highways was sampled in 339 randomly selected 20 m wide strip plots. An index of occurrence class (IOC) for each species was calculated using the product of the percent frequency of occurrence and relative abundance. A total of 467 species were documented, 325 of which were native. Seven families accounted for more than 50% of all species. When ranked on the basis of total IOC values, 15 of the top 25 species were introduced. Mean IOC values for introduced species (6.0) were significantly greater than native species (4.3, p = 0.0013). We propose that despite initial variability of landform, parent material, forest cover types, and climate, the relative similarity of species composition along the highways we sampled was the result of the physical and biological disturbances associated with initial construction (cuts and fills), and postconstruction seeding and vegetation management efforts.

Historical records indicate that Matelea decipiens (Asclepiadaceae), oldfield milkvine or climbing milkweed, is known from Jackson, Saline, and Williamson counties in southern Illinois, where it is listed as endangered. Although a previous unvouchered occurrence has been noted in the Illinois Natural Heritage database, a recent collection from Monroe County, reported herein, officially extends the range north and west in the state.

Sorrie, Bruce A. 2011. A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Softcover, $25.00. ISBN 978-0-8078-7186-7.