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Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia
by Alan S. Weakley
Introduction
The understanding of the flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, and
Georgia has progressed substantially since the publication thirty
years ago of the landmark Manual of the Vascular Flora of
the Carolinas, by A.E. Radford, H.E. Ahles, and C.R. Bell.
Many additional species have been documented as part of the region's
flora, additional alien species have become naturalized, new species
have been described, monographs have given new taxonomic insights
into groups, nomenclature accepted in 1968 has been found to be
invalid, new and more reliable keys have been developed, and systematic
treatments have advanced. Increasingly, identification of the flora
of our area (and other states of the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic)
by academic researchers, agency personnel, and advanced amateurs
is hampered by the lack of an up-to-date flora. W ithout such a
flora, identification must involve reference to herbaria and thousands
of monographs, papers, and other floras -- resources not readily
available to most people who need them. The absence in the region
of a modern standard for the systematic treatment, nomenclature,
and identification of the flora compromises scientific studies,
ecological research, and agency inventory, management, and monitoring
of ecosystems and rare species.
I intend this new flora for the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia
to fulfill part of the need, until a thorough revision of the Manual
is feasible. The emphasis of the Flora is on workable
and detailed keys to all taxa, emphasizing vegetative characters
where possible(to extend the period of the year in which species
can be identified), detailed description of known habitats in the
3-state region, additional characters or hints useful in discrimination
from similar species (including species not closely related but
superficially similar and therefore confused), reference to the
body of recent literature various aspects of the flora of our area,
and discussion of abundance, phytogeography, and ecology. Our knowledge
of the flora of our region is far poorer than is generally recognized,
and past floras have sometimes contributed to this impression, by
obscuring taxonomic judgments or "lumping" poorly known
taxa. An attempt is here made to draw attention to 4 taxonomic questions
or controversies, while at the same time presenting (as best as
possible) a useable, current, consensus treatment. In making taxonomic
decisions, I have generally relied strongly on recent monographs
and revisions and the checklist of Kartesz (1999) (reviewed by hundreds
of experts), but have tempered published treatments with field knowledge,
examination of herbarium material, and consultation with other botanists
in the region. While reluctant to disagree with recent monographs
(by authors who have studied the groups in more detail than I have),
I have also attempted to impose a somewhat consistent concept of
taxonomic categories (family, genus, species, subspecies, and variety),
so as not to have a very uneven treatment, with some genera divided
finely and others coarsely.
The geographic scope of the Flora is Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia. The three recent atlases of the Virginia
flora (the most recent being Harvill et al., 1992) have done much
to elucidate the state's flora, and to encourage a new wave of floristic
exploration. The addition of the state of Virginia to the geographical
scope covered by Radford, Ahles, & Bell offers a number of advantages.
The four-state region is a compact and relatively natural unit;
Virginia, with its strong representation of Southern Aappalachian
and Southeastern Coastal Plain species, has stronger floristic affinities
to the Carolinas than to states to its north and west, with which
it has often been treated in the past (as in Fernald, Gleason &
Cronquist, etc.). The four-state coverage will provide botanists
working primarily in one state with a greater regional perspective,
and should promote an increased knowledge of each state's flora,
by making readily available information on species nearby.
  
Curriculum North Carolina UNC
In Ecology Botanical Garden Biology Department
University of North Carolina
Herbarium
CB# 3280, Coker Hall
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280
phone: (919) 962-6931
fax: (919) 962-6930
email: herbarium@bio.unc.edu
Last Updated: 4 March
2005
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