Vascular plants near the margins of their range in Cedarburg Bog. Part 1. Gymnosperms and Monocots

Marginal populations are those located at the extreme or periphery of a species\u27 range. In the context of this paper, marginal populations refer to a geographical periphery rather than to possible ecological margins. A wide ranging species may be composed of several different varieties or ecotypes. Marginal populations of plants are of special interest to plant taxonomists, ecologists, ecological geneticists and biogeographers because they may exhibit different characteristics than more centrally located populations. This is likely because plants at the boundaries of their species\u27 range may experience extreme ecological conditions beyond which they cannot survive

Vascular plants near the margins of their range in Cedarburg Bog. Part II. Dicots

There are two species of gymnosperms and 18 monocots that are near the southern edge of their geographic range in Cedarburg Bog (Reinartz and Reinartz 1981). Six of these may actually reach their range boundary in the bog. Nine species of the Cyperaceae and seven Orchidaceae comprise the bulk of the monocot species that are near their southern limits. The purpose of this paper is to provide an annotated listing of dicot species which have geographically marginal populations in Cedarburg Bog

Vascular plants of the UWM Field Station area

Since 1967, Field Station staff and volunteers have been assembling a vascular plant species list and herbarium for the Field Station. For the purpose of this list the Field Station area is defined as a 15.5 km2 (6 mi2) area that includes all of the Cedarburg Bog, the Sapa Spruce Bog and the uplands surrounding the Field Station and uplands immediately peripheral to the Bog. The vascular plant species list includes 681 taxa (species, varieties, forms, and named hybrids) in 97 families. 455 of these taxa, collected from the area, are contained in the Field Station herbarium. The list is undoubtedly incomplete, but is nevertheless useful to researchers, teachers and students. I hope that publishing and circulating the present list will encourage researchers to update the census and provide appropriate corrections

Latitudinal variation in the relationship between rosette diameter and fate in common mullein (Verbascum thapsus L.)

There is currently a good deal of interest in the biennial life history. This stems from the fact that theoretical analysis of the selective advantage of alternate life histories predicts that biennials should seldom be favored relative to annual or perennial alternatives (Hart, 1977). However biennials often appear highly successful in terms of abundance, being both common and widespread, even though they constitute only a small proportion of any flora. This paper describes the effects of latitude on the relationship between rosette diameter at the end of one growing season and a plant\u27s fate in the next (death, continued vegetative growth, or flowering) for populations of the biennial species Verbascum thapsus

Verbascum densiflorum at the UWM Field Station

Nine of 260 species of the Eurasian genus Verba scum have been reported from North America; only two (y. thapsus and y. blattaria) are common. Verba scum densiflorum is well established in the U.S. only in southeast Wisconsin in the area immediately surrounding the Field Station where it is an aggressive weed. It differs morphologically, phenologically and ecologically from either y. thapsus or y. phlomoides, the two more common species which it superficially resembles

Labrador tea (Ledum groelandicum) in the Cedarburg Bog

The Labrador tea population in the Cedarburg Bog is a southern outlyer from its more northerly range and is disjunct by at least 40 miles from the nearest population. The discovery of Labrador tea in the Bog raises to 11 the number of vascular plants that reach their absolute southernmost Wisconsin boundaries in the Cedarburg Bog (5 dicots, 5 monocots, 1 gymnosperm). It raises the number of vascular plants at, or near, the southern edge of their range in the Cedarburg Bog to at least 35

A guide to the natural history of the Cedarburg Bog: Part II

The boardwalk that extends to the center of the Cedarburg Bog is the UWM Field Station\u27s most heavily used teaching facility. Research is also conducted in the Bog, which holds an understandable fascination for researchers and students of natural history because of its size, complexity, diversity and geographical isolation from similar communities. Because of the increasing research and teaching use of the Bog, it has become essential that some of what is known about the natural history of the Bog be assembled and summarized in an easily accessible introduction and guide. The guide contains too much material to fit into one issue of the Field Station Bulletin. The first issue contains a narrative on each of the vegetation zones through which the boardwalk passes. The second issue has the selected species lists, annotated with natural history notes, which are also arranged by vegetation zones along the boardwalk. The second issue also contains vertebrate and vascular plant species lists for the Cedarburg Bog. An index to both volumes and the literature cited for both volumes are contained in Part I. As research on the Bog continues, I plan to revise this guide periodically to incorporate additional information. The Field Station would appreciate suggestions regarding ways that future editions of this guide might be improved

Notes on two species of plants at the margins of their ranges in Cedarburg Bog

In June 1983 two large patches of Fringed Polygala were found in the Cedar-Tamarack woods at the north end of Cedarburg Bog. These patches had obviously been established for a number of years but the species had never previously been noticed in the bog. These Ozaukee County populations are southern disjuncts separated by at least 60 miles from the main part of the species\u27 distribution

A guide to the natural history of the Cedarburg Bog: Part 1

The boardwalk that extends to the center of the Cedarburg Bog is the UWM Field Station\u27s most heavily used teaching facility. Research is also conducted in the Bog, which holds an understandable fascination for researchers and students of natural history because of its size, complexity, diversity and geographical isolation from similar communities. Because of the increasing research and teaching use of the Bog, it has become essential that some of what is known about the natural history of the Bog be assembled and summarized in an easily accessible introduction and guide. The guide contains too much material to fit into one issue of the Field Station Bulletin. The first issue contains a narrative on each of the vegetation zones through which the boardwalk passes. The second issue has the selected species lists, annotated with natural history notes, which are also arranged by vegetation zones along the boardwalk. The second issue also contains vertebrate and vascular plant species lists for the Cedarburg Bog. An index to both volumes and the literature cited for both volumes are contained in Part I. As research on the Bog continues, I plan to revise this guide periodically to incorporate additional information. The Field Station would appreciate suggestions regarding ways that future editions of this guide might be improved

Vegetation of the Ulao Swamp, a disturbed hardwood-conifer swamp in southeastern Wisconsin

Ulao Swamp (Grafton, Wisconsin) is a 185-hectare wetland, which was a confer/hardwood swamp before European settlement. Post-settlement disturbances include logging, drainage, flooding, cultivation, grazing, non-metallic mining, and development in the watershed. As a result of these disturbances, very little of the presettlement-type mixed hardwood and cedar/tamarack conifer swamp vegetation currently remains in the wetland. Historically the northern quarter of the wetland had surface drainage to the north, and the southern three-quarters drained to the south. Between 1980 and 1985 a north-south ditch was constructed causing water from the northern quarter of the wetland to drain southward, dramatically increasing water levels in the central portions of the wetland. This dramatic increase in water levels has caused high mortality of the hardwood trees that were established in the central and southern portions of the swamp. Severe flooding continues in some portions of the wetland. During the 2000 and 2001 field seasons, the vegetation of the Ulao Swamp was quantitatively sampled to describe current conditions and serve as baseline data for evaluating future change in the vegetation. Using ordination and classification analysis, six vegetation cover types were recognized in the swamp: cattail marsh, reed canary grass, sedge/shrub, flooded maple forest, open ash forest, and closed ash forest. The distribution of these six types was mapped, and their species composition was described. The closed ash forest vegetation type was found to most resemble the likely preflooding plant community of those portions of the Ulao Swamp that are at slightly higher elevations. The lower elevations of the swamp now have cattail marsh, sedge/shrub, and flooded maple forest vegetation types, and these were dominated by silver maple forest, rather than green and black ash, before they were flooded. The flooded maple forest, sedge/shrub, and cattail vegetation types appear to have been the most severely affected by flooding, with the sedge/shrub and cattail communities having been flooded for sufficiently long to have nearly lost their forest canopies. The presence and densities of standing dead trees and tree stumps, and analysis of aerial photographs, indicates that nearly all of the Ulao Swamp was a closed canopy swamp forest before flooding began in the early 1980’s. We conclude that restoration of a native swamp forest community to the Ulao Swamp would be greatly hastened by closure of the ditch that breaches the drainage divide in the northern portions of the swamp