2020 Oklahoma Native Plant Record


Oklahoma Native Plant Record 3 
Volume 20, December 2020 
 

 

Foreword 

This issue of the Oklahoma Native Plant Record contains reports of efforts to document the 
biological diversity of Oklahoma, including vascular plant surveys of two Nature Conservancy 
preserves, an account of the discovery of a population of a critically imperiled plant species that 
had been thought to be extirpated from Oklahoma, and an article that will facilitate identification 
of Oklahoma's common Amanita species. Also included is a summary of an investigation that 
might lead us to question the wisdom of planting non-native milkweeds as part of the 
conservation effort to protect monarch butterflies. 

Amy Buthod and Bruce Hoagland from the University of Oklahoma conducted vascular 
plant surveys of two biologically diverse Nature Conservancy preserves in south-central 
Oklahoma: the Hottonia Bottoms Preserve and the Oka' Yanahli Preserve. The Hottonia 
Bottoms Preserve contains several forest and herbaceous vegetation types with a high number of 
obligate and facultative wetland taxa.  The preserve is named for one of the wetland plants, 
Hottonia inflata (American featherfoil), pictured on the cover of this issue. The Oka' Yanahli 
Preserve, located along the Blue River, contains a variety of grassland, forest, shrubland, and 
wetland vegetation types. The cobble bars and riparian areas of this preserve provide habitat for 
the imperiled shrub Alnus maritima (seaside alder).   

Audrey Whaley, Monika Kelley, and Allison Holdorf of the National Ecological Observatory 
Network (NEON) Project report their discovery of a population of Palafoxia callosa (small 
palafox) in Washita County, Oklahoma.  Previously reported only from Caddo and Pontotoc 
counties several decades ago, this species had been listed as possibly extirpated from Oklahoma.  
In a time when we hear more often about the disappearance of species, it is heartening to hear 
of a discovery of a new population of a critically imperiled species in our state.  

Clark Ovrebo from the University of Central Oklahoma and Jay Justice from the Arkansas 
Mycological Society describe and illustrate twenty of the most frequently encountered species of 
Amanita in forests of Oklahoma. They explain the morphological characters that are most 
important in the identification and classification of the species of this charismatic genus of gilled 
mushrooms.  

Kayleigh Clement and Priscilla Crawford from the University of Oklahoma investigate the 
utilization of the non-native tropical milkweed versus native milkweeds by migrating monarch 
butterflies in the fall. They suggest the availability of non-native tropical milkweed until late fall 
could be detrimental to monarch conservation by stimulating the monarchs to break 
reproductive diapause, compromising their ability to continue their journey to Mexico.  

Please consider publishing your work in the Oklahoma Native Plant Record. It is listed in the 
Directory of Open Access Journals, is abstracted by the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience 
International, and can be accessed by researchers around the world. 

Gloria Caddell 
Managing Editor