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Oklahoma Native Plant Record          
 Volume 8, Number 1, December 2008   

 

 

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Foreword 
 
 
 

 This has been a very busy year for our authors, reviewers, and editors. Thank you for 
waiting patiently for Volume 8. I think you will agree that it was worth the wait. 
 Susan Barber has provided our historic article for 2008. Her thesis, “A Floristic Study of 
the Vascular Plants of the Gypsum Hills and Redbed Plains Area of Southwestern Oklahoma”, 
is long overdue to be published . She researched the relationships between soil and vegetation 
types, just one of the underlying causes for the great biodiversity in Oklahoma. Her thorough 
work provides much more to the reader than the title reveals. It is a data-rich source for future 
botany research, and we know you’ll enjoy it. 
 “Updated Flora of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge” by Keith Carter, Pablo 
Rodriguez, and Michael Dunn marks a new step in botanical research in Oklahoma. The 
Herbarium at Cameron University [CAMU] is now housing the Refuge’s plant specimens, thanks 
to a grant and a lot of work by students, faculty, and staff at Cameron University. This is the first 
effort to update information regarding species at the Refuge since we published the late Paul 
Buck’s 1977 checklist of the flora in 2002. Hopefully, it will spur interest in keeping the Refuge 
list up-to-date and bring recognition to a very deserving state institution’s herbarium. We also 
hope that this will mark the beginning of a cooperative relationship between the Society and our 
state institutions’ herbaria. One of the main goals of the Record is the initiation of new sources of 
data for biodiversity research in Oklahoma, and this paper is evidence that we are reaching that 
goal.  
 It’s been several years since we’ve published Clark Ovrebo’s popular paper about lawn 
mushrooms. “Spring Mushrooms of Oklahoma” by Ovrebo and Nancy Weber is a new, 
enlightening and enjoyable article with colorful photos from which we can learn a great deal 
more about the intriguing kingdom of Fungi. We’ve also been waiting several years for “Ferns 
and Rare Ferns in Oklahoma” by Bruce Smith. It’s finally here with photos to help identify 
them. Hopefully, a checklist of Oklahoma ferns will be forthcoming.  
 Finally, we have a Memorial to Paul Buck, long-time board member and promoter of the 
Society. Constance Murray has provided us with a look at what it was like to have a professional, 
as well as a personal relationship, with someone so many of us have known and respected, 
someone who had a tremendous impact on the study of botany and ecology in Oklahoma. 
  
Sheila Strawn, Editor