vascular flora of Coffee County, Alabama, The

Castanea, Sep 2002 by Martin, Brian H, Woods, Michael, Diamond, Alvin R Jr

ABSTRACT

A survey of the vascular flora of Coffee County, Alabama was conducted from June 1999 through April 2001. Coffee County includes 173,235 ha and is located in the southeastern section of the state, entirely within the Coastal Plain Province. To increase the diversity of taxa collected, an attempt was made to sample all major habitats within the county. Also, a search of pertinent literature was conducted, and the herbaria of Troy State University (TROY), Auburn University (AUA), and The University of Alabama (UNA) were searched for taxa not collected during this study. A total of 797 taxa, representing 460 genera and 147 families, were reported for Coffee County. Asteraceae was the largest family with 96 species, followed by Poaceae with 70 species and Fabaceae with 61 species. Quercus was the largest genus with 16 species, followed by Rhynchospora with 10 species. Twelve of the species documented here are globally or state ranked for rarity of occurrence.

INTRODUCTION

Although a number of studies have addressed the flora of south Alabama, most are limited in scope and none have been conducted in Coffee County. Floristic documentation of counties is needed to provide baseline data for comparisons for future floristic and ecological studies in Alabama and the southeastern United States.

In 1775, William Bartram was the first botanist to explore Alabama and provide a written record. He entered the state on the east-central side, at the mouth of Uchee Creek in what is present day Russell County. From this location he made his way across the state, documenting the flora and describing the various plant communities along his route to Mobile (Bartram 1777). Mohr (1901), a botanist for the Geological Survey of Alabama, compiled the first and only comprehensive documentation of Alabama's flora in Plant Life of Alabama. Harper (1928, 1943, 1944), also a botanist with the Geological Survey of Alabama, described the flora of Alabama in Economic Botany of Alabama, Forests of Alabama, and Weeds of Alabama. His works, although comprehensive in scope, dealt with only selected groups of plants. Small's Manual of the Southeastern Flora (1933), although outdated, is still one of the most complete field guides for the plants of Alabama.

Since 1971, eight floristic studies have contributed to our knowledge of the vascular flora of south Alabama. In a floristic study of Dauphin Island, one of Alabama's barrier islands, Deramus (1971) reported 584 species of vascular plants. Lelong (1977) reported an annotated list of 876 taxa of vascular plants from Mobile County. In a survey of the fauna and flora of Fort Rucker, Mount and Diamond (1992) reported 549 taxa of vascular plants. Diamond and Freeman (1993) reported 908 species and varieties of vascular plants from Conecuh County. Crouch and Golden (1997) reported 450 species of vascular plants from an area along the Tombigbee River in northeastern Choctaw County. Woods and Reiss (1998) collected 274 species and varieties of vascular plants from an area around Pike County Lake. In the survey of the vascular flora around Ech Lake in the west-central portion of Dale County, on the Fort Rucker Military Reservation, Rundell and Woods (2001) collected 507 species of vascular plants. In the most recent study, 407 species of vascular plants were reported from an area surrounding Dale County Lake (Woods et al. 2001). Although these studies were comprehensive treatments of their areas, additional records are needed to adequately document the diversity and distribution of plants found in south Alabama.

The objectives of this study included collecting and documenting all vascular plant taxa occurring in Coffee County, Alabama. To increase the probability that all vascular plant taxa of the county would be collected, all major habitats found within the county were sampled. Because of human disturbance of Coffee County's landscape, the vegetation is rapidly changing. Therefore, it is important to document the flora of the county for future reference due to the disturbance or destruction of habitats.

DESCRIPTION OF COFFEE COUNTY

Coffee County (31 deg 22'N, 86 deg 00'W) is located in southeast Alabama (Figure 1). The county lies entirely within the Coastal Plain Province and has an area of 173,235 ha. The majority of the county occurs in the eastern portion of the Southern Red Hills Region with the exception of the southwest corner, which occurs in the Southwestern Pine Hills Region (Harper 1943). The six soil associations found in Coffee County are Luverne-Lucy, Orangeburg-Dothan, Red Bay-Orangeburg, Troup-Lucy, Eunola-Bladen, and Shadygrove-Luverne (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service 1979).

The topography of the county ranges from low rolling hills in the north to very flat terrain or gentle sloping ridges in the south. The Pea River enters the county in the northeast corner and exits in the southwest corner. The river has created a shallow valley in some areas where the elevation is near sea level (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service 1979). Other major waterways include Whitewater Creek, which enters the north-central portion of the county and empties into the Pea River in the west-central section of the county. Double Bridges Creek, located in the south-central section of the county, flows southwest and empties into the Pea River. The Pea-Choctawhatchee Watershed drains the majority of the county. The Upper Conecuh River Watershed drains a very small area of the extreme northwestern part of the county while the Yellow River Watershed drains a very narrow section of the west-central part of the county.