2017 Oklahoma Native Plant Record


Oklahoma Native Plant Record 3 
Volume 17, December 2017 
 

 

Foreword 
 

 The search for historic articles that would be important to botanical research often leads us 
down surprising pathways to sources that are sometimes hidden in plain sight. Lynn Nabb 
mentioned her grandmother’s 1959 Master’s thesis from the University of Tulsa in a Facebook 
post that honored her work and her life. Until then, Maxine Clark’s “A Study of the Flowering 
Plants of Tulsa County, Oklahoma” had been quietly sitting in the university library for almost 
60 years. Maxine was a student of Dr. Ralph Kelting and a friend of Dr. Harriet Barclay. We are 
grateful to the University’s library staff who helped us obtain the thesis. 

 This year The Record offers a number of important works from a wide variety of sources. It 
brings together several articles that have to do with species interactions and a couple of articles 
that offer readers the opportunity to know something “first.”  

 We chose Paul Buck’s “Allelopathy” from a previous issue of The Gaillardia for our “Critic’s 
Choice Essay,” because it explores deeply the “War in the Garden” and the “vicious world in 
nature.” Dr. Buck’s 2004 article may help us better understand several issues discussed in 
“Laboratory Studies of Allelopathic Effects of Juniperus virginiana on Five Species of Native 
Plants” by Erica Corbett and Andrea Lashley. This work involved undergraduate students in an 
important research opportunity and explores possible negative interactions between plant 
species.  

 As for the firsts, urban species have historically been overlooked by botanists because their 
habitats had been altered by human activity. Researchers have changed that perspective. Urban 
studies are now valued because they address the effects that humans have had on species. Urban 
parks can be surprisingly biodiverse. “Vascular Flora of E. C. Hafer Park, Edmond, Oklahoma” 
is from Gloria Caddell and students Katie Christoffel, Carmen Esqueda, and Alonna Smith at 
the University of Central Oklahoma. It is the first species list for Edmond’s Hafer Park, which 
was established in 1979. 

 For another first, Clark Ovrebo reports on an interesting earth star fungus that, until now, 
was known only in Texas and Japan! Be on the lookout for it. Evidently, it has a much wider 
distribution than previously thought. Speaking of wide distribution… The Oklahoma Native Plant 
Record is getting more widely distributed every year. Because it is listed in the Directory of Open 
Access Journals and abstracted by the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International, it can be 
accessed by researchers around the world. 

 And here’s another “first.” The Record has a new editor this year. Gloria Caddell is joining the 
editorial board as Co-Editor. It’s time for a change of leadership, and she has graciously agreed 
to begin taking over the helm and her new responsibilities. 
 
 
Sheila Strawn and Gloria Caddell 
Co-Editors