the vascular flora of the natchez trace parkway - NPS Inventory and ...

A comparison was also made of the study collections (collected on the five collection trips) and the
list of vouchers that are currently being curated at the NATR Headquarters in Tupelo, MS. The two lists
were compared for taxa occuring on both lists. Once these overlapping taxa were determined, a count of
the taxa collected only by the study team was calculated as well as a count of the taxa that are only found
in the NATR headquarters. The same comparison was also made for the top ten plant families to ascertain
if, and by how much, the vascular plant collections were increased by the study team. The total number of
taxa is found in Table 7 with the percentage of the total in parentheses.
TABLE 7: Comparison of Study Collections to the Natchez Trace Parkway Headquarters Collections
Family
TAES Collections
25
Natchez Trace Headquarters
Collections
Both Study and Natchez Trace
Headquarters Collections
All Families 445 (31.25) 490 (34.41) 489 (34.33)
Asteraceae 49 (22) 103 (46.4) 70 (31.5)
Poaceae 89 (60.5) 11 (7.5) 47 (32.0)
Cyperaceae 56 (77.8) 6 (8.3) 10 (13.9)
Fabaceae 19 (19.2) 40 (40.4) 40 (40.4)
Rosaceae 10 (21.3) 26 (55.3) 11 (23.4)
Lamiaceae 7 (17.5) 24 (60) 9 (22.5)
Brassicaceae 4 (22.2) 8 (44.4) 6 (33.3)
Scrophulariaceae 9 (21.4) 22 (52.4) 11 (26.2)
Ranunculaceae 9 (21.1) 14 (43.8) 9 (21.1)
Liliaceae 6 (21.4) 14 (50) 8 (28.6)
There were significant increases in the number taxa in specific monocots families, Poaceae
(grasses) and Cyperaceae (sedges) in particular, added to the collections already present. Overall, the
NATR taxa vouchers were increased by 33.0% as many of the plants collected by the study team
compared to those collected by NATR staff.
3.3.3 Nativity of Natchez Trace Parkway Flora
Three nativity classes are present along the NATR. Plants considered native, introduced, and
plants considered both native and introduced. Each of these three categories is summarized by division in
Table 7. Vouchers have been collected for 1154 native taxa, 212 introduced taxa, and 8 taxa are
considered both native and introduced. Records in NPSpecies account for an additional 642 native taxa,
173 introduced taxa, and 6 taxa considered both native and introduced (provided in parentheses in Table
8). Information on nativity was assigned based on the USDA PLANTS database (version 3.5) (USDA
2004).