Journal of the Oklahoma Native Plant Society, Volume 5, Number 1, December 2005


Oklahoma Native Plant Record 
Volume 5, Number 1, December 2005 

98 

Editorial 

Tribute to John Taylor 

It‟s no wonder that the Taylors have 
been responsible for the identification and 
distribution information of more native 
Oklahoma species than anyone else, 
worldwide; John loved working in the field 
more than anything else he did. He and 
Connie traveled extensively and exhaustively 
throughout their careers. He was active in 
the Oklahoma Academy of Science and 
Oklahoma Native Plant Society and Connie, 
even in her retirement, continues her active 
participation in these organizations.   

It is an honor to include John‟s 1967 
Master‟s thesis in this volume of the 
Oklahoma Native Plant Record, as we continue 
to bring historic and significant scientific 
work into the hands of today‟s botanists and 
ecologists.  We thank Connie for updating 
the format and condensing some of the 
information for optimal access by current 
readers. She helped John collect data and 
prepared the original manuscript for his 
thesis. She is still a major source of 
taxonomic expertise for Oklahoma species 
and the following testimonials are a tribute 
to her work as well.  

“The book „An annotated list of the 
ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms and 
flowering plants of Oklahoma‟ has been 
indispensable to me and my students over 
the past fifteen years. It has been so helpful 
to be able to consult it when a plant didn‟t 
fit the Waterfall keys, and to find that there 
were species new to Oklahoma that we 
might have in hand. The lists of synonyms 
and distribution information have been 
equally helpful. I am so grateful that John 
and Connie Taylor undertook this tedious

task to help expedite the identification of 
the Oklahoma plants.” 

Gloria Caddell, Professor of Biology, CSU 
Herbarium, University of Central Oklahoma 

“I met Dr. Taylor rather late in his life, 
as he had already retired at the time, but 
remember very well a field trip he co-led 
with Connie for the ONPS, along the 
Talimena Trail in, I think, 1998. It had been 
very dry, and there weren‟t many plants in 
bloom, but the two of them knew every 
plant we passed, whether blooming or not. 
Along the way he pulled up a Carex seedling 
and gave it to me to grow, saying, “This is 
quite rare in Oklahoma”.  It was, and still is. 
It later bloomed for me on a place I built 
for it in Cleveland County, and by that time 
I knew enough to know it as Carex atlantica. 
But John‟s most endearing contribution to 
Oklahoma plants was that „…Annotated 
List…‟ At a time when the USDA database 
was only an unreliable hatchling, apt to go 
off-line at irregular intervals, that list was 
the best reference we had for the 
organization of the Flora of Oklahoma 
Project. Using it, we were able to determine 
workloads and make assignments. It is still 
the best available source for information 
about whether a plant is native or not, 
where to look for it, or why it has three 
scientific names! Only someone who 
understood and sympathized with the plight 
of beginning botanists in Oklahoma could 
have produced such a valuable book.” 

Patricia Folley, Bebb Herbarium, University of 
Oklahoma. 

“I use the Annotated List constantly, 
both for my own personal gratification in 

https://doi.org/10.22488/okstate.17.100041



Oklahoma Native Plant Record  99
Volume 5, Number 1, December 2005 

my home landscape and for professional 
landscape planting projects for clients. It is 
my bedrock concerning the suitability of 
planting in the different regions of 
Oklahoma.” 

Susan Chambers, Owner 
Rose Rock Landscaping, Midwest City, Oklahoma 

“I did not have the opportunity to know 
John Taylor very well; however, I greatly 
appreciate his contributions to the flora of 
Oklahoma.  In particular, the „An 
Annotated List of the Ferns, Fern Allies, 
Gymnosperms and Flowering Plants of 
Oklahoma‟ is an invaluable resource.  My 
students and I use the list several times a 
week.  Student workers (usually work-study 
students who may not be biology majors) 
manage our small herbarium and without 
the list they would be lost.  John and 
Connie‟s list is the first reference that I use 
to resolve a nomenclature issue.”

Monica Macklin, Instructor of Biology, Joe M. 
Anderson Herbarium, Northeastern State University 

“At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 18, 
1989, I left home in Noble to drive to 
Durant for an ONPS field trip. It was cold 
and blustery, as March usually is. John 
Taylor was to be our trip leader with Jim 
Norman‟s assistance. I had been on only a 
few such outings and was excited. However, 
I had reservations about the weather. It was 
more like a day to stay inside and read. We 
were to meet at a restaurant on the outskirts 
of town.  

When I arrived John and Jim were there 
alone. The three of us were the only ones to 
show up. I felt badly because John had gone 
to a lot of trouble to set up a display of 
things we could expect to see that day, in 
the school‟s herbarium at East Central State 
College. Then we proceeded on an 
extensive driving and walking trip to several 

locations and John was just as instructive 
and patient with only one student as he 
would have been with a dozen or more. 
Sixteen years later I don‟t remember many 
details except that somewhere we saw 
seaside alder growing in a bar ditch and I 
realized that my miniature pinecone earrings 
that had been dipped in gold were actually 
seaside alder cones. I had never even heard 
of them before.  

In spite of my earlier misgivings and 
disappointment that we hadn‟t had more 
people, it turned out to be one of the best 
experiences of my life. I will always 
remember that trip and all the special 
attention I received as an only student with 
two excellent teachers.” Incidentally, John and Connie‟s book (An Annotated List of the Ferns, Fern Allies, Gymnosperms and Flowering Plants of Oklahoma) has made it possible for me to convince a lot of people that I know more about Oklahom” 

Ruth Boyd, Charter member of the Central Chapter 
of ONPS 

“John and Connie Taylor‟s, An 
Annotated List of the Ferns, Fern Allies, 
Gymnosperms and Flowering Plants of Oklahoma” 
is one of the most valuable publications 
about Oklahoma plants I own. It is certainly 
the first one I reach for when I want to 
know a plant‟s range, use, and common 
name. I wish I could have taken field trips 
with the Taylors. What an adventure that 
would have been!” 

Marilyn Stewart, Owner, Wild Things Nursery, 
Seminole, Oklahoma 

His work has benefitted many more 
Oklahoma botanists than he knew or could 
ever have met. That number will surely 
increase in the coming decades. SS 

 ONPS