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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Floristic Diversity In Ten Tallgrass Prairie Remnants Of Eastern Nebraska, Judith F. Boettcher, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland Jan 1993

Floristic Diversity In Ten Tallgrass Prairie Remnants Of Eastern Nebraska, Judith F. Boettcher, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

Ten eastern Nebraska tallgrass prairie remnants, varying in size from one to 18 ha, were studied or visited during the growing seasons from 1979 to 1993. A total of217 prairie plant species were recorded. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), little bluestem (Andropogon scoparius), smooth brome (Bromus inermis subsp. inermis), New Jersey tea (Ceanothus herbaceus var. pubescens), false sunflower (Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), and porcupine-grass (Stipa spartea) were prevalent in all the prairies although the specific floristic composition has been reported to vary depending on past management, topography, season of evaluation, and prairie size. Of the total species …


Woody Vegetation Of A Disjunct Bur Oak (Quercus Macrocarpa) Forest In East-Central Nebraska, Debra Ann Beightol, Thomas B. Bragg Jan 1993

Woody Vegetation Of A Disjunct Bur Oak (Quercus Macrocarpa) Forest In East-Central Nebraska, Debra Ann Beightol, Thomas B. Bragg

Biology Faculty Publications

Woody plant composition was assessed for three tree-size classes in two ravines of Oak Glen Wildlife Management Area, a disjunct oak forest in Seward County, Nebraska, using Importance Values (IV) obtained by the Point-Quarter method. Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa Michx.) dominated the large-size class (>30 cm dbh) (IV = 258) but elms (Ulmus americana L. and U. rubra Muhl.) (IV = 130) dominated the forest in one ravine in the medium-size class (10-30cm dbh) and elm and hackberry (Celtis occidentalis L.) (IV = 114 and 27 respectively) dominated the small-size class (


Review Of American Wildflower Florilegium By Jean Andrews, David M. Sutherland Jan 1993

Review Of American Wildflower Florilegium By Jean Andrews, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

This book is a collection of 50 watercolor paintings of American wildflowers ("florilegium" means, literally, "a gathering of flowers"). Accompanying each full-page painting is a summary of general information about the plant, including notes about its botanical classification, the etymology of its name, life history, distribution, description, flowering period, pollination, and propagation.


Review Of The Wild Oat Inflorescence And Seed: Anatomy, Development And Morphology, M. V. S. Raju, David M. Sutherland Aug 1991

Review Of The Wild Oat Inflorescence And Seed: Anatomy, Development And Morphology, M. V. S. Raju, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

This slim volume describes a detailed study of the reproductive parts of Avena fatua, the wild oat plant-a common weed in the northern plains and the probable ancestor of the cultivated oat. The book integrates the author's own work with information from available literature and includes lengthy technical descriptions of the structure and the growth of the inflorescence, the floret, the ovule, the pollen grain, the embryo, the seed, and the young seedling. Throughout the work, the author relates the wild oat's structure and development to other grasses, other monocotyledons, and other seed plants, offering evolutionary interpretations of many of …


New And Corrected Floristic Records For Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, David M. Sutherland Jan 1991

New And Corrected Floristic Records For Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

Nineteen species (including eight Eurasian ones) are newly recorded for Nebraska: Alopecurus arundinaceus, Amaranthus californicus, Asclepias asperula, A purpurascens, Cardamine {lexuosa*, Centaurea diffusa, Dipsacus laciniatus, Eriochloa villosa, Euclidium syriacum, Gentiana alba, Geranium viscosissimum, Geum vernum, Goodyera oblongifolia, Haplopappus multicaulis, Heterotheca latifolia, Lathyrus tuberosus, Polygonum douglasii, Scirpus saximontanus, Veronica biloba. Twenty-one others are shown to be more widespread in Nebraska than previously known, one has a more restricted range than previously reported, two (Scirpus smithii, S. torreyi) are deleted from the flora based upon corrected identifications, and the status of some rarely-collected species is updated. Thirty-two additions, two …


A Taxonomic Study Of Variation In Leptochloa Fascicularis (Lam.) Gray In The Central Great Plains, Todd A. Templeton Jan 1991

A Taxonomic Study Of Variation In Leptochloa Fascicularis (Lam.) Gray In The Central Great Plains, Todd A. Templeton

Biology Faculty Publications

The morphology of Leptochloa fascicularis (Lam.) Gray (Poaceae) was studied in 25 locations in eastern and central Nebraska to determine if this grass was separable into two distinct taxa as suggested in several recent sources. Field collections were supplemented with herbarium specimens from other parts of the Central Great Plains. Glume and lemma lengths, the characters used in published keys, provided no separations useful in dividing the material into two species or varieties. However, individual local populations exhibited significant differences from each other in these characters. Such local differences appear to be reasonable given the high degree of inbreeding that …


Woody-Plant Succession In An Eastern Nebraska Bluff Forest, Douglas E. Borland, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland Jan 1989

Woody-Plant Succession In An Eastern Nebraska Bluff Forest, Douglas E. Borland, Thomas B. Bragg, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

Woody plant composition of ridgetop old-fields abandoned at various times since 1800 suggest a successional pattern for an eastern Nebraska bluff forest. Sites abandoned for 24 years were dominated by elm (Ulmus spp.) and rough-leaved dogwood (Comus drummondii). Other sites, abandoned for76 years, were dominated by bitternut hickory (Cwya cordijormis), American linden (Tilia americana), and hop-hombeam (Ostrya virginiana), and those abandoned for 186 years were predominantly bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) and hop-hornbeam. Based on species importance values, we conclude that the composition of this forest is still changing.


An Annotated List Of The Vascular Plants Of Keith County, Nebraska, David M. Sutherland, Steven B. Rolfsmeier Jan 1989

An Annotated List Of The Vascular Plants Of Keith County, Nebraska, David M. Sutherland, Steven B. Rolfsmeier

Biology Faculty Publications

This study provides an annotated list of the vascular plants known to exist outside of cultivation in Keith County, Nebraska. Listed are a total of 599 species, subspecies and varieties belonging to 302 genera of 87 families. Notes are included about frequency and habitat for each of the taxa. 264 (44.1 %) of the taxa listed were previously unreported for Keith County. Additionally, the paper discusses vegetation regions in the county and gives information in tabular form about numbers of the flora in different taxa, the ten largest families, numbers of taxa of different growth habits, and numbers of taxa …


New And Corrected Floristic Records For Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, Marjorie M. Garabrandt, David M. Sutherland Jan 1988

New And Corrected Floristic Records For Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, Marjorie M. Garabrandt, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

New distributional data are given for 54 species of vascular plants in Nebraska. Twenty are newly recorded for the State. 23 are shown to be more widespread than was previously known, seven are shown to have more restricted ranges than previously reported. the records of one species attributed to the State are shown to be based on misidentifications. and the presence in the State of three species collected long ago is confirmed by recent collections.


Historical Notes On Collections And Taxonomy Of Penstemon Haydenii S. Wats. (Blowout Penstemon), Nebraska's Only Endemic Plant Species, David M. Sutherland Jan 1988

Historical Notes On Collections And Taxonomy Of Penstemon Haydenii S. Wats. (Blowout Penstemon), Nebraska's Only Endemic Plant Species, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

Penstemon haydenii was originally described in 1891 by Sereno Watson and was named for its first collector, the geologist and explorer Ferdinand V. Hayden, who probably collected it in the late summer of 1857 in the" Sand Hills of Loup Fork," Nebraska. The Hayden specimen which Watson saw in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University had evidently been labeled with an incorrect location. Watson did not base his description on that early specimen but upon a more complete specimen, also in the Gray Herbarium, taken by Herbert J. Webber in Thomas County in 1891; so the Webber specimen, not the …


New And Corrected Records Of The Flora Of Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, David M. Sutherland Jan 1987

New And Corrected Records Of The Flora Of Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

New distributional data are provided for 27 species of vascular plants in Nebraska, eight newly recorded as growing wild in the State. The record of one species previously attributed to the State is shown to be based upon misidentified specimens, the range of another is shown to be much more restricted in Nebraska than previously reported, and nomenclature is corrected for two species.


Nebraska Plant Distribution, David M. Sutherland, Robert B. Kaul Jan 1986

Nebraska Plant Distribution, David M. Sutherland, Robert B. Kaul

Biology Faculty Publications

Distribution notes based on recent collections and herbarium work are provided for 46 Nebraska plant taxa, including 43 flowering plants, two ferns, and one liverwort. The list includes several plants that are new to the State and provides range extensions within the State for many others. Several previously- published distribution records believed to be erroneous are also discussed.


Vegetative Key To Grasses Of The Sand Hills Region Of Nebraska, David M. Sutherland Jan 1984

Vegetative Key To Grasses Of The Sand Hills Region Of Nebraska, David M. Sutherland

Biology Faculty Publications

All illustrated key is provided that will facilitate identification of grasses in the vegetative condition in the Sand Hills region of Nebraska. The key separates 97 species, varieties, and species groups and discusses or partially separates 14 additional taxa. It emphasizes characteristics that may be observed in the field with a hand lens and is illustrated with 109 camera lucida drawings.