PROCEEDINGS OF
THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
[ISSUED QUARTERLY]
VOL. 7 Nos. 2-3
SECONDARY FOREST SUCCESSION IN THE
TALLAHASSEE RED HILLS
HERMAN KURZ
Florida State College for Women
GEOLOGY AND SOILS
Characterizing the approximate northern half of Leon County,
Florida, the Tallahassee red hills represent deeply weathered sandy
limestone of the geological formation known as the Hawthorn.1
Due to the combined results of surface erosion and underground
solution of limestone resulting in subsidence of overlying materials,
the hills are irregular and the valleys display some discontinuity
and apparent lack of drainage system. Solution caverns divert
surface streams underground. An abandoned channel thus be-
comes a dry valley above. The subterranean portion of the stream
flows on only to rise elsewhere and to feed from below sinks, ponds,
and lakes, or to reappear as a large spring in the lower elevation
near the coast. Most of the isolated basins, blindly ending or
apparently discontinuous streams, and unevenness of surface not
directly attributable to surface erosion, are, according to Sellards,2
caused by underground work of water. A topographic map by the
same worker shows that, at the stations studied in the present
work, the altitude ranges from about 100 feet above sea level near
the valley or basin floors to about 230 feet on the hill tops or
plateaus.3 This range in elevation is sufficient to provide de-
cided hills and slopes which, in most places, are mantled with the
well drained loam soils so favorable for the various forests and
other types of plant communities found in this region.
1C. W. Cooke and Stuart Mossom, "Geology of Florida," Florida Geological
Survey, O0th Annual Report (1929), p. 123.
2E. H. Sellards, "Geology between the Ocklocknee and Aucilla Rivers in
Florida," Florida Geological Survey, 9th Annual Report (1917) pp. 92-101,
116-128.
3Ibid., pp. 100-101 (map insert).
60 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The vegetation appears like the heterogeneous patchwork of a
crazy quilt: here is a field fallow with last year's corn stalks
and rank with this season's weeds-mostly annuals; there lies a
field of dog-fennel and broom-sedge; elsewhere a patch is char-
acterized by dark green young short-leaf pines spaced in between
the tufts of dog-fennel or clumps of broom-sedge; in one area
is a dense growth of young pine trees, two to six inches or so in
diameter and standing a hundred or more to a twenty-five foot
radius; in another place will be similar but much larger pines
with a liberal mixture of oaks, hickories, and an understory of
dogwood, white with flowers in March. Hardwoods often run-
ning up to twenty inches in diameter and representing fifty or
more species of trees and shrubs are punctuated with the dark
glistening foliage of towering magnolias. In some situations, by
way of variety, the magnolias will be mere saplings just arriving
in this mixed assemblage of many hardwood species. Other sites
will display solid or almost solid stands of mature magnolias.
An early soil map of Leon County by Wilder,et a14 designates
the soils of the localities studied for the present paper as Orange-
burg fine sandy loam, Norfolk fine sandy loam, or Orangeburg
sand, the first being the one most often encountered and the third
the rarest. According to a recent soil map5 nearly all the stations
studied lie within one of the areas designated as "Red and Yellow
soils: Norfolk-Greenville Areas." Under that broad heading are
listed thirteen types: "Norfolk, Ruston, Red Bay, Orangeburg,
Marlboro, Tifton, Faceville, Carnegie, Magnolia, Gilead, Green-
ville, Cuthbert, and Susquehanna sandy loams." Within the area
selected for this investigation the soils display noticeable varia-
tion in their proportions of sand, clay, and humus. I have, how-
ever, had no soil determination made, for it is very evident that
factors such as fire, cutting, and grazing play a much more pro-
found role in the local vegetational changes and forest develop-
ment than do the individual differences of the related soils. The
clayey subsoils derived from the Hawthorn formation are rich in
oxidized or dehydrated iron compounds and appear as strikingly
red banks along the roads and gullies; hence the term, Tallahassee
red hills.
4H. J. Wilder and others, "Soil Survey of Leon County, Florida," U. S.
Dept. of Agr., Bureau of Soils (1906).
5"Generalized Soil Map of Florida," in: Henderson, J. R., "The Soils of
Florida," University of Florida Agr. Emp. Sta. Bull., No. 334 (1939), 67
pp., 5 figs., 2 maps in folder.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
PREVIOUS WORK
In the pioneer study of succession in northern Florida, Ganob
portrays the physiographic ecology of the entire and rather diversi-
fied area included in Leon County. Comprehensive and general
in nature, this paper does not treat in detail the plant successions
of the Tallahassee red hills. Twenty-five years have elapsed since
the publication of Gano's groundwork, and the writer has there-
fore been encouraged to undertake the study of the secondary
successions in the red hills.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Credit is due to William Dean Wilson, Draftsman, Florida
Geological Survey, for the preparation of the schematic diagram
of Plate 1. I must also acknowledge the aid of Edwin V. Komarek,
Farm and Game Service, Birdsong Plantation, Thomasville, Georgia,
with whom I have had many profitable conferences concerning the
role of fire in secondary successions of this region. As indicated
elsewhere in the text Erdman West and Lillian Arnold, of the
University of Florida, determined the species of plants.
LOCALITIES OF STUDY
With few exceptions all the stations studied lie within one and
one-half to four miles north, east, or south of the center of Talla-
hassee. Forming approximately an arc, the area including them
is on the average about three miles wide. Beginning at the S. K.
Meginnis estate on the old Bainbridge road about two and one-
half miles northwest of the city, the belt circles clockwise almost
180 degrees to include Myers Park and Perkins Woods, which lie
about one mile southeast of the center of Tallahassee and to the
right of the Perry highway.
Paradoxically enough, some of the fields and woods on the .out-
skirts of the city are more nearly-if not absolutely-free from
the drastic interference of man than are the forests out in the
country, where fires, purposely set, almost everywhere influence
the progress and order with which the various species or associa-
tions succeed one another and develop toward a climax forest as-
sociation. If one holds to the opinion that he should not consider
vegetational development too near the influence of local urban
activities but ought rather to seek the presumably less disturbed
6Laura Gano, "A Study in Physiographic Ecology in Northern Florida,"
Botanical Gazette, Vol. 63 (1917), pp. 337-372.
62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
plant life far out in the rural districts, he is likely to see only plant
successions that have been influenced and more or less complicated
by drastic lumbering operations, grazing cattle, rooting hogs, and
cataclysmic fires. The relatively rapid and simple vegetational
sequences (plant successions) seen in the immediate environs of
Tallahassee are not so evident in severely molested rural tracts of
woods.
ASSOCIATIONAL CONCEPTS
Following Braun-Blanquet7 and without involvement, I am
simply applying the term plant association to "pieces of vegetation
with similar combinations of species." For example, the many
patches of forest characterized by short-leaf pine, oaks, and hickory
of the Tallahassee red hills region may be synthesized into the
pine-oak-hickory association concept; pieces of vegetation char-
acterized by broom-sedge and dog-fennel constitute the broom-
sedge-dog-fennel association7a. The dominant and outstanding spe-
cies are used to name the association. In the schematic drawing
and tables of associations and species I have included species usually
noticed in the association during repeated field trips and studies.
I make no claims that the plants noted constitute a complete or un-
modifiable check list.
Concerned primarily with local plant succession-vegetational
changes or development from field through various forest types
or stages-and the more obviously important environmental fac-
tors related thereto, I have made no attempt to break down the
vegetational unit, the association, into any of its subordinate plant
communities. Neither have I tried to incorporate into the associa-
tion concept such vegetational characters as physiognomy and
ecological structure, as proposed by Nichols8-features of which
one would necessarily take cognizance in certain types of studies.
In accord with Braun-Blanquet9 I have considered individual ex-
amples of an association as stands. Pine association, for instance,
is the abstract type, and pine stand the concrete example. Again
7J. Braun-Blanquet, Plant Sociology, English translation of Pflanzensozio-
logie by George D. Fuller and Henry S. Conard (New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Company, Inc., 1932), pp. 22-23.
7a In this paper an em-dash instead of a hyphen is used to connect the
plant names that make up the association name, on account of the fact
that so many of the plant names are themselves hyphenated.-Editor.
SGeorge E. Nichols, "A Working Basis for the Ecological Classification
of Plant Communities," Ecology, Vol. 4 (1923), p. 17.
90p. cit., p. 23.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
following the proposal of Nicholso1 and the recommendation of
Braun-Blanquet"1 I sometimes use the term association in an ab-
stract, at other times in a concrete sense. However, there should
be no confusion, for the context indicates the use: concretely, this
is a pine association; or abstractly, the pine association is common
in the vicinity of Tallahassee.12
DETERMINATION OF SPECIES AND NOMENCLATURE
Harper's13 work on the vegetation of the Tallahassee red hills,
fortified with a representative plant list, served as a substantial
aid in recognizing and locating species, as well as a good back-
ground for general topographic and soil features of the region.
Erdman West, Botanist in charge of the Herbarium, and Miss
Lillian Arnold, Assistant Botanist, both of the Agricultural Ex-
periment Station, University of Florida, determined or verified
the identifications of nearly all species. Credit is due to them for
valuable and prompt aid, but the writer assumes all responsibilities
for possible errors. Nearly all nomenclature used herein follows
Small's manual.14 Authority is cited for names from other sources.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION FROM ABANDONED FIELDS TO PINES
Soils of the local fields are laden with seeds of many species
of plants: annual, biennial, perennial herbs, and even shrubs and
trees of forests which will never manifest themselves as growing
plants as long as the area is subject to tillage. But let a field
loOp. cit., p. 16.
"1Loc. oit.
12The subject of plant associations receives extensive and critical treat-
ment in such works as:
Frederick E. Clements, Plant Successions, Pub. 242 (Washington: Carnegie
Institute, 1916).
Frederick E. Clements, and Victor E. Shelford, Bio-Ecology (New York:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1939).
H. A. Gleason, "The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association,"
The American Midland Naturalist, Vol. 21 (1939).
J. E. Weaver and F. E. Clements, Plant Ecology (New York: McGraw-Hill
Book Company, Inc., 1929).
'3Roland M. Harper, "Geography and Vegetation of Northern Florida,"
Florida Geological Survey, 6th Annual Report (1914), pp. 266-279.
14J. K. Small, Manual of the Southeastern Flora (New York: Author,
1933).
64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
lie fallow for one season and the herbs with many seeds already
in place appear almost at once in great numbers and robustness.
Because of a soil already favorable for plant growth, species on
relapsed fields become established and plant associations supersede
one another much more rapidly than in certain barren areas of
rock or sand where soil sufficient to support plants accumulates
very slowly. The type of plant succession starting in an old field,
for example, is known as a secondary succession. Primary succes-
sions are associated with slowly produced soil, and may be seen,
for instance, taking place on seaside dunes, where waves and wind
first have to build mounds of sand suitable for pioneer plants.15
There are, of course, other kinds of primary and secondary suc-
cessions.
Although predominatingly crowded with annuals and biennials
like ragweed, horse-weed, Spanish-needles, Isopappus divaricatus,
cocklebur, Mexican clover, evening primrose, buttonweed, coffee-
weed, and partridge-pea, the annual-biennial association of the
abandoned field may already in the first year show vanguards of
the next association-occasional single-stemmed plants of the per-
,nnial dog-fennels, Eupatorium compositifolium in the well drained
areas, and Eupatorium capillifolium in moist places, especially de-
pressions. About the third year small bunches of broom-sedge
(Andropogon virginicus, A. Cabanisii) and other perennials appear
along with the, by this time larger, several-stemmed tufts of dog-
fennel. In one instance the field representing the second or third
year of secondary succession was in places characterized by what
appeared to be almost exclusively partridge-peas (Chamaecrista
robusta), but surprisingly enough under the solid canopy of this
colony of annuals there could be seen healthy clumps of broom-
sedge, apparently not handicapped by the shade cast by partridge-
peas. Broom-sedge and dog-fennel, by early establishment of their
perennial underground parts, are prepared to challenge the future
occupancy by, or persistence of, the annual partridge-pea or other
short-lived annual herbs. Once started, perennial herbs like dog-
fennel and broom-sedge shut out the annuals by preempting the
soil with a mass of rootstocks below and shoots above, making it
impossible for seeds of the annuals to work into and under a moist
cover of soils. This phase of exclusion is a mechanical one. But
in addition to this handicap imposed on them, annuals starting
from seed, when and if they do, must each year develop new roots
15Herman Kurz, Florida Dunes and Scrub, Vegetation and Geology, Bull.
23 (Tallahassee: Florida Geological Survey, 1942), passim.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
with which to compete against perennials, whose roots and shoots,
in place during the winter and filled with stored food, are able
to take the lead in the spring.
Fields several years old are ruled by broom-sedge and dog-
fennel. Here the annuals or biennials, once so rank and numerous
in the first and second year stages, are depauperate individuals and
found only in pockets not yet taken by broom-sedge and dog-fennel.
Annuals or biennials of the summer and fall, like ragweed, horse-
weed, partridge-pea, button-weed, Spanish-needles, Isopappus divari-
catus, evening primrose, and others, so large in earlier stages, are
now dwarfed in size and reduced in numbers. These lingering,
isolated plants are thought of as relics harking back to a former
time when conditions for them were more favorable. Reference
to annuals as relics in a later perennial stage is of course figura-
tive; for no individual annual plant actually persists from the an-
nual stage of succession; it is rather that the species lingers on by
virtue of chance germination of seeds and precarious survival of
seedlings thus started in a habitat no longer very amenable for
pioneering annuals. The consideration of perennial herbs or trees
as relics is different. In these cases it is actually the individual
as well as the species that hangs over into a later stage.
In the perennial stage are a number of other perennials each
in its own way able to compete with or persist in spite of the
dominant broom-sedge and dog-fennel. These species, even though
they play a subordinate role, are definitely a part of the dog-fennel
-broom-sedge association. Most of them, not very expansive plants
and apparently not requiring a maximum of water and light, are
able to establish themselves and to hold on in the unoccupied in-
terstices of the larger dominant broom-sedge clumps and dog-fennel
tufts.
But almost as soon as herbaceous perennials have closed out
their predecessors, they themselves must yield to trees and woody
perennials which, by the yearly increments of length and branches
to roots and stems already in place, are able to reach heights for
light and depths for water and minerals that are never accessible
to perennial herbs whose roots and stems, however efficient in
lateral expansion, are nevertheless limited in vertical extension.
Sun-loving pines raising their stems and leaves aloft incidentally
cut down light intensity beneath them to such a degree that dog-
fennels and broom-sedge are unable to survive very long after
the pines tower over them. As a matter of interest, before a dog-
fennel-broom-sedge field is very old, the pines with their dark
green needles manifest themselves in bold contrast. Really the
66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
pines are present in the spaces as small seedlings or saplings sev-
eral years before they are large enough to be seen from a road-
side. In other words, the pines may come in as seedlings as early
as the second year after a field has been abandoned, but their
small stature as seedlings makes their early presence in a field
of robust herbs inconspicuous and easy to overlook.
Observation discloses that dog-fennels also begin to filter in
between the annuals or biennials the first year the latter are
established; ordinarily the broom-sedges start the second year.
Because of the modest size of these perennials in their initial stages,
compared with the rankness of the annuals, they are not noticeable
until about the third or fourth year, when their larger shoots and
abundance compare well with, if indeed they do not overshadow,
the annuals. It must be clear then that herbs, like the pines which
follow them, are present much sooner than is obvious on account
of early inconspicuous sizes. As Gleason16 has emphasized, plant
succession proceeds from one stage to another with a gradation
that is much finer than one realizes who thinks of plant succession-
al stages as definitely compartmentalized, or who sees only the dis-
tinctive plants or plant associations. The various stages spoken of
in this context are thought of as expressions of convenience rather
than sharply delimited or "jumpy" stages. Succession does not
proceed from one stage to another by long leaps.
Development of the pine association replacing the dog-fennel-
broom-sedge association may thence proceed in one of at least two
directions: (1) rather directly and rapidly from a short-leaf pine
association to a pine-red-oak-water-oak-laurel-oak association,
with mockernut hickory added in the later stages, and on to a
magnolia or magnolia-beech climax; or (2) from dense short-
leaf pine ,to a pine-red-oak-post-oak-black-oak-mockernut
hickory association, a stage more or less indefinitely arrested, and
typified by an abundant undergrowth of perennial grasses and
forbs (herbs other than grasses), and low thickets of sprouting
trees and shrubs. The first course of development takes place
when burning, cutting, and grazing play a negligible role; the
second sequence results when fire, ax, and stock profoundly in-
fluence the vegetation. In this second sequence relations of all
the factors operative in the variable types of associations evolved
are not always clear. But abundance of seed in proximity, sensi-
tivity and reaction of different species to fire, and to particular
light conditions, grazing, and cutting operations, together with
the different time schedules that species follow in settling into the
160p. oit., pp. 92-110.
ANNUALS And BIENNIALS PERENNIALS PINES
Ambrosia el/tior ef -
Ambrosia elatior
Leptilon canaodensis
Richord/d scobra
Bidens bipinnolo
Emelisio Tore
Diodella ltres
Isopoppus divoricolus
Cenchrus echinotus
L/noar/ canadensis
Annuals
Chaomecrlst robuslo etc.
* l
Chomoecriso robus/a
Oenothera b/ennis
GnophoH/um
obtusifolium
Polypremum
procumbens
Cyperus retrorsus
Soothra gentianoides
Xanthoxo/is
Brittonlae
Raimonnia lociniato
-I I
Biennials
Andropogon spp
Perenni
Andopogon virgin/ic
Andropogn Cboanisil
Eupaorium
composilifolium
Arislida ppurpu ens
Gymnopogon ambigu.
Agalln/s fasciculoft
Ergrasti spectbllis
Syntherisma villosum
Ascyrum hypericoides
ml
etc.
Is
I
Pinusechinolo
Andrpogon virginicus
Andropogon Cobnisii
Eupolorium
compositifol/um
Gymnopogon ombiguu
Panicum ociculore
Panicum lanuginosurn
Pinus echinato etc
Pines
Pinus ec
Pines oa
Mat
i
Pinus echinetl
Ouercus rubro
Ouercus laurifolio
Ouercus nigro
OAK-
m
hinoto etc
ks hickories
uercus rubra etc.
ure oaks hickories
I-
Magnolia grandiflora etc.
Magnolia-beech climax
Oueraus rubr
Ouercus laurifolia
Oueracs nigra
Hicoria olba
Mognolia grmndifla
Fogus grondifolia
PLATE 1
Plate 1. Diagram illustrating the principal stages in a direct secondary succession of the Tallahassee red hills.
(Drawn by W. D. Wilson, Draftsman, Florida Geological Survey.)
40
68 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
community, all complicate or modify in varying degrees the success-
ional development and species combination of a given stand.
FROM PINE TO MAGNOLIA-BEECH CLIMAX
Pine Association. Where the pines have taken possession and
developed without hindrance, it is not rare to see stands crowded
with twenty-five, fifty, or even one hundred trees within a twenty-
five foot radius-an area approximating 1900 square feet. The
pines often range in diameter from one to seven inches (sometimes
up to eight or nine inches) at breast level, and their height runs
from twenty-five to fifty feet. While the trees are about this size
and height their tops form a dense low canopy under which the
weakened light permits very few plants to grow. Only isolated
dwarfed individuals of ragweeds, partridge-pea, dog-fennel, broom-
sedge, and panic-grasses (relics of previous conditions), or scatter-
ed plants of elephant-foot, partridge-berry, longspur-orchid, French-
mulberry, and rosin-weed (pioneers of a future brighter pine
woods), inhabit the dark needle-littered floor.
Sometimes fire, ax, or even competition between the pines
themselves will eliminate enough trees to allow more light to filter
in. Also with time-thirty or forty years or so-the ceiling of
foliage will lift and break enough to permit lateral and local en-
trance of light. In some instances the pines are somewhat scat-
tered from the very beginning. It is in situations such as these
that the pioneers listed above are reenforced by others characteristic
of the open pine woods-species of grasses, sunflowers, ironweeds,
golden-asters, goose-grasses, and others listed in Table 1.
Pine-Oak-Hickory Association. Sooner or later numerous
saplings of red-oak, water-oak, and laurel-oak start in the shade
of the pines-soon, if the pines are not too thick; later, if the
pines are dense, when time or circumstance shall have thinned them
out. If the pines are not too thick from the beginning and fires
not so severe or frequent as to eliminate the species of oaks in
question, the latter may appear in good numbers before the pines
are more than fifteen feet high. In some situations, in fact, the
oaks may be as numerous and almost as large as these young pines
themselves. Because of their thicker bark pines will survive a
fire with no worse injury than singed needles, whereas young oaks
will usually be killed back to stumps in the ground, from which
they will sprout anew if not burned too deeply. The pines do not
survive by sprouting: fire either kills them outright or leaves them
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
alive without loss in height. By virtue of having more individuals
in the beginning and an earlier start than the oaks, the pines will,
in a periodically burned area, usually be represented by more and
larger survivors, tending thus to dominate over the oaks for a
long time, until the ax or natural death removes the last relic
pine. Eventually the oaks, hickories, and other hardwoods will
come to characterize the association; for pines, not germinating in
their own shade or in that of oaks, have no offspring to perpetuate
them, while the oaks and hickories can come in under the pines
and hold dominance until magnolia and beech, in turn germinating
in the shade of the oaks and other hardwoods, displace them.
In one habitat two blocks north of Tharp street and two blocks
west of Meridian road, unburned for a long time, if ever, and rich
in needle duff, magnolia saplings one to two feet high were com-
ing up in the midst of a pure, oak-less stand of short-leaf pines,
ranging from two to seven inches in diameter and with a density
of fifty trees per twenty-five foot radius. Growth ring counts of
cores taken indicated the ages of the pines to be from fifteen to
thirty years. Such evidence demonstrates that in certain cases-
where fire has been scarce or absent, and there is abundant leaf
mold-magnolias may even appear as early as the oaks. In fact,
in this stand, only thirty years beyond the dog-fennel-broom-sedge
stage, there are still relics of that association in the form of beard-
grass, love-grass, and even Mexican-clover-species belonging to
the annual stage. However, although the fire-sensitive magnolias
may come into an unburned open pine woods very early, the indi-
cations are that usually the oaks and hickories antecede them. The
severity and frequency of burning determine to an important de-
gree what species of oaks shall settle in the pines, but even mild
fires preclude or eliminate magnolia. Situations also apparently
inimical to the establishment of magnolia are tangles of grass and
vine, herb, and sprout growth, such as are induced by frequent fires,
the ax, or grazing in an open pine forest or in mixed hardwoods;
but perhaps it is the fire per se which has kept the magnolias out
of such growths.
Offsetting the foregoing places where magnolia fails to establish
itself, however, is the fact that it will come up abundantly in the
shade of pines, in dense stands of young hardwoods, and in certain
old mixed woods, provided only that the ground is rich in leaf
mold, relatively free and clean of ground cover of herbs, vines,
and sprouts, and untouched by fires.
Another example of a dense pine-oak-hickory stand favoring
early invasion by magnolia exists at the Miccosukee, road about
70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
seven-tenths of a mile southeast of the juncture with the Centerville
road. This stand is characterized by short-leaf pines about six
inches in diameter, with scattered red-oaks, water-oaks, and laurel-
oaks almost as large. Persistent char-marks on the bases of the
pines indicate the occurrence of fires in the past, but the present
thick leaf mold and forest floor devoid of sprouting oaks show that
there has been no recent burning. Even with mature oaks at
hand and young hickories developing, the forest is still predominat-
ingly pine.
Magnolia-Beech Climax Association. In the pine-oak-hick-
ory association there are many saplings of magnolia and a few
beeches making their appearance. It is easy to picture this stand
converted into magnolia-beech climax association fifty years
hence, probably still harboring a few relic pines, oaks, and hickories
that will hark back to the present. The size of the present trees
suggests a forest that began with pine saplings about thirty-five
to fifty years ago. This estimate is based on cores examined by
the writer and on growth ring studies made of Pinus echinate by
MacGowan.17 The perplexing multiple growth rings of magnolia
do not permit a reliable estimate of the number of years that will
have to be added to the above thirty-five to fifty years before the
present pine-oak-hickory stand will be characterized by mature
magnolias. However, beech trees develop at about the same rate
as magnolia; and growth rings of beech are determinable. Mac-
Gowan's tables8 shows that under forest conditions beech requires
about seventy-five years to reach a diameter of fourteen inches.
Beech and magnolia of this size would make a representative cli-
max. It seems therefore that for magnolias to reach twelve to
fifteen inches in diameter under forest conditions another fifty to
seventy-five years would have to be added to the fifty years of
Plate 2. Types of Plant Associations.
Top: Fore, broom-sedge with short-leaf pine coming in. Rear right,
pine-deciduous oak-hickory subject to fires.
Middle left: Dense young short-leaf pine stand, burned at times.
Middle right: Unburned short-leaf pine-mixed oak-hickory, with
invading magnolia.
Lower left: Magnolia climax, showing little undergrowth and a
paucity of young climax saplings.
Lower right: Magnolia-beech climax with open understory and prac-
tically no reproduction. Large beech in foreground.
17W. Leroy MacGowan, "Growth Ring Studies of Certain Trees of North
Florida" (Unpublished Master's Thesis, Florida State College for Women,
1935), Chart 3, p. 31, Table III, pp. 79-80.
18W. Leroy MacGowan, "Growth-ring Studies of Trees of Northern Florida,"
Proceedings of the Florida Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1 (1936), pp. 57-59.
PLATE 2
(Legend on opposite page)
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
pine-oak-hickory development. Thus, under favorable condi-
tions, one hundred to one hundred and fifty years of plant succes-
sion would probably change a field into a mature magnolia-
beech climax with some trees attaining a diameter of fifteen
inches and a height of seventy-five feet. Conceivably a minimum
time span of one hundred years might suffice for an area never
burned or disturbed in any way to go from fallow field to final
climax-for example, the station near Tharp street and Meridian
road discussed above.
Sassafras and Persimmon Thickets. Locally in the fields of
annuals or dog-fennel-broom-sedge, thickets of sassafras or per-
simmon sometimes develop instead of pines. I have seen no stands
of this kind sufficiently extensive or long enough established to
justify much discussion. However, as an early feature of the
undergrowth of these communities, there are young red-oaks, laurel-
oaks, and short-leaf pines. With the development of these species
there should, it seems, result a pine-oak-hickory stage with a
number of persimmon or sassafras relics persisting from the
earlier association.
Magnolia versus Beech. Where beech competes with magnolia
no obvious advantage seems to be gained by one over the other.
Being evergreen the magnolias have the longer growing season
for food building; the deciduous beech, on the other hand, seems
to offset its shorter season of activity by a fuller utilization of all
available light in the various levels of the forest. As a rule the
foliage branches of the beech reach much lower down into the un-
derstory of forest canopy than do those of the magnolias. In
crowded climax conditions, in fact, the magnolia stem system seems
to be cramped and of narrow outline, while the beech branches
spread laterally and even sprawl downward under and amongst
the interspaces of the more or less restricted limbs of neighboring
magnolias. All in all, however, it seems to be about an even
contest.
Other Ecological Equivalents of Magnolia. It may be that, next
to magnolia and beech, the pignut hickory is the most shade-tolerant
of all trees. In the C. W. Anders magnolia forest at the north end
of Lake lamonia is located the largest almost pure magnolia stand
in this region. In this stand pignut hickory is found here and
there as a large tree. Under the magnolias are many small pignut
hickory saplings less than six feet high. Browsed by cattle, how-
ever, it seems in this forest to have no chance to develop. For a
number of reasons definite conclusions as to the role of the species
can not now be reached; observations have been limited, no young
72 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
pignut hickories larger than the mutilated ones are present, hogs
range this habitat, and there is evidence of disturbance in the cli-
max forest. Nevertheless, the pignut hickory and the American
ash do appear to be at the same time the latest hardwoods to enter
a mixed forest and the last to be expelled by magnolia.
Not specifying location, Watson19 speaks of a Magnolia-Tamala
-Ilex mesophytic climax in northern Florida. In his Welaka
area study Laessle20 writes of a "Magnolia grandiflora-Ilex opaca
association." He also considers Tamala Borbonia (red-bay) and
Ilex opaca (American holly) as forming a part of the mesophytic
climax hammock and sharing dominance with Magnolia grandi-
flora.21 Laessle22 states that:
These climax hammocks are characterized by an arboreal
vegetation composed of bull-bay, laurel-oak, red-bay, pignut (Hicoria
glabra), American holly (Ilex opaca), water-oak (Quercus nigra),
black-cherry, live-oak, and some sweet-gum (Liquidambar Styraci-
flua) in the more moist portions. Loblolly-pine, basswood (Tilia
floridana) and cabbage-palm are occasional.
Except for the presence of the cabbage-palm and the prominence
of holly and red-bay on the one hand, and the absence of beech on
the other, this association is very suggestive of the modified cli-
max-hardwood forest under discussion farther on. Laessle is fully
cognizant of fire as a factor in the development and existence of
the Magnolia grandiflora-Ilex opaca association. He makes no
commitment, however, as to whether selective or periodic cutting
is a characterizing influence of his climax hammocks.
In none of the stations included in my studies have I seen
American holly sharing a habitat on equal terms with magnolia.
The hollies noticed were rare, isolated, and small specimens. Neither
have I seen red-bay in a typical magnolia-beech climax situa-
tion. Indeed as a large tree red-bay is rare in this section. Nor
have I seen the two species in question coming up as saplings under
the shade of magnolias. In the Tallahassee red hills the holly and
red-bay can therefore not be considered as co-dominants of mag-
nolia and beech. I have seen the two species with magnolia in
modified climax-hardwoods (q. v.); the same modified climax-
hardwoods would also display pignut, laurel-oak, white-ash, sweet-
gum, Walter's-pine, red-mulberry, basswood, and others. In other
19J. R. Watson, "Florida," in: Naturalist's Guide to the Americas (Balti-
more: The Williams and Wilkins Company, 1926), pp. 427-440.
2OAlbert Middleton Laessle, The Plant Communities of the Welaka Area
(Gainesville: University of Florida, 1942), p. 37.
2iLaessle, Op. cit., pp. 36-40, 96-68.
22Ibid., pp. 37-38.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
words, the red-bay when present at all, and the commoner holly
are in this section simply a part of modified climax-hardwoods or
of broken climaxes in general.
Reproduction of Magnolia and Beech. In the relatively direct
tree successions just described.degrees of shade tolerance play the
important role. The sun-loving pines are least shade-tolerant;
the oaks and hickories, tolerating more shade than the pines, es-
tablish themselves under the latter; and the magnolias and beeches,
most tolerant of all, spring up under the oaks and hickories. Each
succeeding tree association gradually outgrows and replaces its
predecessor; magnolias and beeches, the last to come, develop into
the climax forest association. Ordinarily none of these species,
not even the magnolia nor the beech, starts and develops under the
canopy of a mature forest of its parent trees. Like the associa-
tions preceding them magnolia and beech seem to succumb to their
own shade or influence. Although I have seen no instance of mag-
nolia or beech saplings of varying sizes and ages coming up under
parent trees, I nevertheless consider these species as climax trees
by virtue of the fact that they alone, other factors being favorable,
start under the shade of any of the local mesophytic tree communi-
ties and finally replace them. Lack of reproduction on the part
of magnolia and beech within the climax is at once outstanding and
perplexing, for it seems generally accepted by ecologists that the
ability of a species to establish itself in the shade of the parent
tree is one of the tests of a climax forest species. Whitford23
writes:
The whole interior of North Manitou Island, except in clearings
and undrained areas, is covered with a mature maple-beech-
hemlock forest. The presence of seedlings and young trees of
these three in abundance and the absence of all other young trees
in there indicate that the future forest growth will be the same
as the present.
It appears especially striking that in the north the beech shares
with its ecological equivalents, maple and hemlock, the ability to
reproduce in its own shade, while in northern Florida it shares with
its ecological equivalent, magnolia, the failure to do so.
Paucity of reproduction in the heart of a magnolia-beech cli-
max suggests a number of speculations and questions. Why, for
instance, do young magnolias not develop in the shade of the parent
stands when at the same locality saplings do appear in the under-
23Harry Nichols Whitford, "The Genetic Development of the Forests of
Northern Michigan; A Study in Physiographic Ecology," Botanical Ga-
zette, Vol. 31 (1901), pp. 289-325.
74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
story thicket of adjacent modified climax-hardwoods? It may be
that the coarse leaves of magnolias do not make a suitable mulch.
Unfavorable soil water or other conditions related to the nature
of the mulch, and shallow, water-demanding roots of the old trees
themselves may be involved. Do animals play a part? Magnolia
seeds and seedlings are favorite foods of various wild animals and
semi-wild hogs. Often the ground under a magnolia will show
the work of hogs while beyond the canopy and root limits of the
tree the forest floor shows no molestation. In these adjacent rela-
tively undisturbed and fire-free areas occur the magnolia saplings.
One might think that the hogs, confining their work within the
limits of the tree where seeds are concentrated, simply miss the
isolated seeds or seedlings strayed in the neighboring ground;
but I have seen small groves of large magnolias shading ground
untouched by hogs, and even here, there were no saplings under
the trees. The exact role of animals is therefore also not clear
to me. Aside from these uncertainties, it is very apparent that
factors definitely detrimental to magnolia reproduction are fire
and, in one sense, magnolia itself, where the trees are large and
closely grouped, as in climaxes or even in stands of a few indi-
viduals. I have seen no perpetuation of either magnolia or beech
in a closed mature magnolia-beech climax, and all my observations
indicate that a new start must be made under trees that are not
magnolias or beeches.
While both beech and magnolia fail in reproduction in a mature
climax, the two species are not parallel in all respects. Within
a radius of twenty-five feet I have counted as many as twenty-five
beech seedlings germinating in March, only to see them severely
mutilated by leaf parasites by midsummer. Symptoms on the
foliage of parent trees nearby indicated the same enemy operative
on adults. Concerning beech I am not prepared to go beyond this
suggestive observation. I have never even seen any germination of
magnolia in a comparable climax situation.
Climax Undergrowth. Remarkably free of undergrowth, the
climax is always characterized by an open, easily traversed under-
story. French-mulberry is the commonest shrub; here and there,
according to local conditions, may occur others like strawberry-
bush, silverbell-tree, southern black-haw, wild-olive, sweetleaf, and
devil's-walking stick. Woody climbers are usually represented by
poison-ivy, Virginia-creeper, muscadine, cross-vine, and Chinabriar.
Partridge-berry and sarsaparilla are found mostly as trailers. The
forbs, never abundant, ordinarily are green-dragon, wake-robin,
yellow passion-flower, Virginia-snakeroot, bedstraws, crane-fly
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
orchid, and beech-drops. Two sedges, Carex filiformis and C.
floridana, are commonly present. Wood-grass is nearly always
present in the climax, and the panic-grass, Panicum Joorii, very
often. Along the banks of woodland brooks or on ravine slopes we
frequently find the Christmas-fern, Polystichum acrostichoides
(Michx.) Schott, or occasionally ferns like the moonworts, Botry-
chium alabamense Maxon., Osmundopteris virginianum (L.) Small,
and the spleenwort, Asplenium platyneuron (L.) Oaks.24 It might
be well to point out that a slight variation in habitat due to to-
pography or to the activities of man may change conditions locally
enough to make a pronounced difference in the species composition;
but then we are no longer dealing with a typical mesophytic mag-
nolia-beech climax environment and its corresponding stand.
ARRESTED OR SET-BACK FOREST ASSOCIATIONS
Pine-Deciduous Oak-Hickory Association. Characterized by
short-leaf pine and deciduous red-, post-, and black-oaks as well
as by mockernut hickory trees, and more or less modified by cutting
and grazing, the pine-red-oak-hickory is essentially a fire-de-
layed association. Although the pine and red-oak are the most
abundant, the other oaks and hickory are present consistently
enough to qualify them as regularly participating species. The
association usually abounds in species and individuals of grasses,
forbs, and herbaceous and woody vines, and often displays low
thickets of woody sprouts brought about by injury from fire, ax,
or cattle. Flowering herbs appear from spring to fall but are
the showiest in late summer and autumn. In the spring, however,
when dogwoods form a continuous understory of white, and the
higher pines and oaks a ceiling of many shades of green, these
woods are most attractive. Often marked by uncrowded trees and
more or less dense and tangled low growth, the pine-oak-hickory
forests offer a real contrast to the relatively crowded conditions
in unburned and unmolested pine stands, where the forest floor,
thick with needle litter, is almost plantless. Continually grazed,
periodically burned, and cut from time to time, the pine-deciduous
oak-hickory may, according to the severity of these factors, be
halted as a more or less open forest for years--certainly as much
as fifty years according to the testimony of longtime residents.
Pine invasion is nearly always marked by great numbers set-
tling into an old field. Soon obliterating and overshadowing the
dog-fennel and broom-sedge, the trees, mostly short-leaf pines,
24Determined by Edward Porter St. John, Floral City, Florida.
76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
sometimes grow as many as one hundred or more within a radius
of twenty-five feet. If not seriously molested, such colonies de-
velop and persist as virtually pure pine stands up to fifty years or
more. Because of extreme shade, other plant species and individuals
are reduced to a minimum. However, where the pines, as is a
common case, have been thinned out by early competition, work of
man, or fire, thus allowing light to break in, and where fire subse-
quently sweeps periodically, there comes an opportunity for many
species hitherto excluded. That is to say, drastic factors like cut-
ting and fire are much more favorable to abundance of species
than the severity of competition and reduced light conditions in a
dense undisturbed stand of pine. As Harper25 has indicated so
persistently in various papers, fire favors the survival of relatively
thick-barked or tough woody plants, and even of many perennial
herbs which by means of protected rootstocks or other subterranean
propagative parts are able to send forth new top growth following
a scorching in summer or a burning of dead shoots during winter.
As might be expected, the herbs so abundant and lush in the open,
well-lighted and burned pine woods are depauperate, rare, or even
absent in the thicker and shadier stands of pines.
Red-oak, water-oak, and laurel-oak, progressively less fire-re-
sistant in the order listed, are usually the early pioneers in pine
stands where periodic burning of varying intensity is the rule.
The evergreen water- and laurel-oaks are much more readily set
back by fire than the red-oak, but they keep coming back as sprouts
from stumps which survive light fires, or start anew as seedlings.
Ordinarily mockernut hickory comes a little later, while the post-
oak and black-oak, about as immune to flames as the red-oak,
appear even later than any of the five oaks previously mentioned,
and apparently come as isolated individuals into the developing
pine-red-oak-hickory association. In situations where fire is
frequent and drastic, because of the greater fire sensitivity of the
water- and laurel-oaks, the tougher post- and black-oaks, along
with the red-oak, hickory, and pine, constitute the important trees
of the pine-deciduous oak-hickory association. Indeed these
latter five species are found alike in burned and unburned woods.
Interestingly enough, unless a pine-deciduous oak-hickory woods
is burned from year to year and otherwise maltreated, the post-oak
25Roland M. Harper, "Geography and Vegetation of Northern Florida,"
Florida Geological Survey, 6th Annual Report (1914), pp. 184-185. "Vege-
tation Types; Natural Resources of an Area in Central Florida," Florida
Geological Survey, 7th Annual Report (1915), pp. 147-165, 170-171. "Nat-
ural Resources of Southern Florida," Florida Geological Survey, 18th
Annual Report (1927), pp. 82-103.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
and black-oak are scarce if not absent; and most of the species of
herbs, grasses and forbs, so typical of pine-deciduous oak-
hickory, are decidedly smaller and less abundant if not wanting.
It appears that the very same pyric factor which practically eli-
minates the evergreen laurel- and water-oaks provides opportunity
for invasion by and favors survival of the more fire-resistant de-
ciduous post- and black-oaks. If, on the other hand, the habitat
escapes the influence of fire, the post- and black-oaks play an
inconspicuous role and eventually fade out, while the red-oak
(usually present and already established), water- and laurel-oaks
(always trying), mockernut, sweet-gum (starting almost anywhere
except in heavy shade or fire-swept areas), sour-gum, red-mulberry,
pignut hickory, and others gradually assemble and develop into an
evergreen oak-hardwood-pine forest.
Frequency or severity of burning, duration of fireless period,
extent of cutting, intensity of grazing-all these factors in varying
degrees bring about mingling between fire-tolerant and non-toler-
ant species, or paucity of some types, and thus create a variety of
forest communities. For example: a dense stand of young short-
leaf pine with only a scant litter of dry needles may well be scorched
so slightly or infrequently that laurel- and water-oaks, facing
flames not too drastic, can develop along with the red-oaks; but
where fire is frequent and severe, as it must be in the pine-
deciduous oak-hickory association with its abundant dead and
dry undergrowth in winter, the laurel- and water-oaks and sweet-
gum tend to be absent, while post-, red-, and black-oaks as well
as mockernut hickory are apt to be the species present.
In situations with repeated severe fires but no serious thinning
out of trees by burning itself, by cutting, or by other factors, red-
oaks, black-oaks, post-oaks, mockernut hickory, water-oak, dog-
wood, and the ever present short-leaf or occasionally loblolly-pine
constitute almost all the trees of the forest. Here sweet-gum and
laurel-oak, often found with water-oak but more sensitive to fire,
are scarce or absent. Stands of this kind with a profuse under-
story of dogwood may be very shady, and the forest soil at times
very dry, with herbs quite sparce.
Evergreen Oak-Hardwood-Pine Association. Once the prac-
tice of burning and grazing is abandoned, laurel- and water-oaks
come back quickly as a conspicuous element, and the forest rapidly
loses much of the undergrowth of jumbled forbs, grasses, sprouting
woody plants, and interwoven vines. Freedom from burning soon
results in the growth of the fire-sensitive evergreen laurel- and
water-oaks, red-mulberry, sweet-gum, and sour-gum, all from in-
78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
vading seeds, or else allows stumps already in place but hitherto
periodically scorched now to develop their sprouts into a phalanx of
young trees. With increasing dominance of hardwoods the short-
leaf and loblolly-pines fade out altogether, and instead the more
shade-tolerant dark green Walter's-pine may make its appearance.
In areas formerly typical of fire-produced pine-deciduous oak-
hickory, which have later been freed from burning, I have seen
veritable thickets of water-oak, laurel-oak, and red-oak, short-
leaf pine, red-mulberry, live-oak, sour-gum, mockernut hickory,
dogwood, and crab-apple, with a density as great as two hundred
trees within a circle of twenty-five foot radius. Led in abundance
by water-oak, these young trees ranged in height from six inches
to fifty feet, and in diameter from one-half to six inches. Natural-
ly enough in summer, with trees in full foliage, the thickets are
weak in light, but because of a good leaf mold and clean floor,
magnolias soon find their way into these habitats, especially if
seed-bearing trees are not too distant. Even with parents far re-
moved infiltration of magnolias or beeches begins in due time.
Parts of Perkins woods on the southeastern edge of Tallahassee,
cleared and sometimes burned in past years but not in recent
times, contain a variety of large scattered evergreen oaks and
other hardwood trees with a dense undergrowth of saplings in
between. Rich in leaf mold and scant in ground-cover growth,
this station shows magnolia coming up in various situations. Under
one large live-oak and headed upward through the central leafless
skylight provided by extreme centrifugal divergence of its limbs,
I counted ten magnolia saplings. One large laurel-oak (twenty-
two inches in diameter and sixty feet high) was surrounded by six
magnolia saplings five to ten feet high within twenty-five feet of
the trunk. Locally the woods showed as many as one hundred trees
within a radius of twenty-five feet, different species running from
six inches to forty feet high. In such thickets, containing laurel-
oak, water-oak, red-oak, sweet-gum, mockernut hickory, red-mul-
berry, and pignut hickory, half a dozen magnolia saplings were
not unusual.
Modified Climax-Hardwoods. Small local clearings produced by
selective cutting or by windfalls in the magnolia-beech climax are
not immediately resettled by young magnolias or beeches. In
making observations for the present paper I have seen nothing to
support MacGowan's26 contention that the smaller the clearing the
26W. Leroy MacGowan, "Growth-ring Studies of Trees of Northern
Florida," Proceedings of the Florida Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1, (1936),
pp. 57-59.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
sooner it will be repopulated by magnolias, and that the larger
the devasted area in the climax the farther it is set back in the
successional development.27 It seems rather that magnolia-beech
stands locally depleted of trees now offer a very favorable habitat
for a number of strongly mesophytic and very fire-sensitive arbo-
real species that can not survive in direct competition with mag-
nolia or beech. Sometimes all the tree species that commonly play
a role in the various stages of succession from a relapsed field to
a climax forest, may be concentrated into one complex community.
Locally such a mixed forest area may contain in miniature each
of the habitat types that follow one another in a typical unhindered
succession. Recent cutting by ax, dragging of logs, and uprooting
of trees by storms can create in the forest open spaces and loose
soil, not very unlike conditions in a field, where pioneer ruderals
and later pines, oaks, and hickories may find foothold. In due
time removal of dominating magnolias and beeches gives, under
certain conditions and circumstances, access to shade-tolerant trees.
In short, all kinds and degrees of conditions, from minor changes
to severe havoc, bring about a telescoping and scrambling of rep-
resentative successive plant associations into one grand mixture of
forest trees.
The great variety of herbs and forbs found in these modified
climax-hardwoods is due, of course, to the same causes. Pioneer
herbs of fields and pines, and herbs and forbs of modified hard-
woods and of climax forest grow here in great confusion.
Tree species often found in very old, seldom burned mesophytic
hardwoods, or in the gaps of emasculated climaxes are: Hicoria
glabra, H. microcarpa, H. megacarpa, Pinus glabra, Fraxinus
americana, Ilex opaca, Morus rubra, Liquidambar Styraciflua, Quer-
cus Prinus, Q laurifolia, Q Schneckii, Tilia heterophylla, T. georgia-
ana, and T. carolina. These trees can grow all around magnolia or
beech climax relics but are not, except in rare instances, found as
part and parcel of genuine magnolia-beech climax. As a rule
they are unable to establish themselves under the patriarchal cli-
max trees; repeated burning may in one place bring in fire-tolerant
black- or post-oaks or mockernut hickory so typical of the pine-
deciduous oak-hickory; while freedom from the pyric factor may
in another spot favor the invasion of fire-sensitive laurel-oak or
27With the aid of an ingenious diagram MacGowan has summarized the
successions of the Tallahassee red hills. It seems proper to state that
some of the views once advanced by the writer and partly in agreement
with those expressed in MacGowan's paper have had to be abandoned or
modified during the progress of these more recent studies.
80 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
sweet-gum, and later the incursion of the other apparently more
mesophytic and less fire-tolerant species discussed above.
Just what the combination or series of factors is that enables
the above-listed group of fire-sensitive trees to "get the drop on"
magnolia I do not know. It may be that these very mesophytic
deciduous hardwoods can survive the occasional or mild fires which
are yet severe enough to preclude effectively the establishment of
the more sensitive magnolia or beech climax trees. According to
circumstances, there may be present magnolia or beech relics-few
or many, sometimes scattered singles, again groups of trees-
which give a tinge of climax to this type of association. This sug-
gestion of climax conditions, however brought about, together with
the many extremely mesophytic hardwood species present, has led
me to refer to these communities as modified climax-hardwood as-
sociations. In using this term I am fully aware of the fact that an
attempt to define or name such multi-varied hardwood complexes
is more a matter of verbal convenience than ecological precision.
On the other hand it does not seem desirable to lump these modified
climaxes as well as several other types of hardwood forests all as
mixed hardwoods or mixed climaxes; for these catch-all terms are
too vague and general to cover the variety of specific types of
hardwoods where so many possible species or combinations must
,e considered.
The nearly constant absence of young magnolias of successive
age levels in these modified climax-hardwoods where large trees
create an open but shady understory, and, on the other hand, the
frequent presence of such magnolias in young, unburned pine-de-
ciduous oak-hickory associations, rule out the supposition that
the hardwood complexes in question are a stage regularly or neces-
sarily antecedent to the magnolia-beech climax.
When fire is kept out of the modified climax-hardwoods, mag-
nolias and beeches may occasionally germinate under the parent
tree, but I have seen none surviving under old ones. Colonization
of magnolia may take place in heavily mulched, relatively herb-less
soils characteristic of the young hardwood thickets which often fill
in gaps or open areas of forest caused by the violence of storm,
clearing, or fire. Such colonization has been observed, for example,
in the thickets between large scattered trees of gums, oaks, pignut,
mulberry, and Walter's-pine.
Magnolias may also settle into certain relatively open gum-
oak woods where the adverse pyric factor is not operative. In a
grove of sweet-gums and water-oaks at Magnolia Heights, I count-
ed respectively twelve sweet-gums and three water-oaks within a
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
circle of twenty-five foot radius; their diameters ran from two to
fourteen inches. This grove, with no signs of fire and about
twenty-five to thirty years old, revealed twenty-three one-foot tall
magnolia saplings in spite of evident grazing.
Judge Oven's woods, two miles east of Tallahassee, is today an
excellent example of a modified climax-hardwood rich in mature
arboreal species. Almost all the species of trees of the region are
concentrated there. Until 1936 a part of the forest was pure
magnolia and beech. At that time lumbering operations claimed
the stately adults. The gaps thus formed were quickly filled by
colonies of sweet-gums and silverbell-trees (Halesia diptera) or
by loblolly-pine (Pinus Taeda) and short-leaf pine (P. echinata),
the gums or pines being crowded one hundred trees to a circle
of twenty-five foot radius. At present, seven years after the
cutting, although the floor is well mulched and free of ground
vegetation, there are as yet no seedlings of magnolia or beech.
With continued exclusion of fire the latter might appear within
the next five, ten, or twenty-five years. I cannot be definite
about the time, but the point is that, even with mature trees
left nearby to furnish seed it was not magnolias but gums, pines,
and silverbells that took first possession of those suddenly opened
areas with their rich forest soil but exposure to bright sunlight.
In general I have noticed that recent clearings in climax or
old modified climax-hardwood forest are usually first invaded by
such species as Walter's-pine, loblolly-pine, short-leaf pine, sweet-
gum, laurel-oak, water-oak, or silverbell in varying purity or in
combinations-not by magnolia or beech. Sweet-gums and laurel-
oaks usually play a prominent part as gigantic trees in hardwoods.
Unlike the pignut hickory, red-mulberry, and basswoods, they ap-
pear under the short-leaf pine early in succession. Tolerating
quite a range of light, water, and soil conditions, sweet-gums and
laurel-oaks come early and keep on appearing under almost any
kind of forest canopy and conditions, except those of the mag-
nolia climax. It is not uncommon to see these two trees shooting
straight up through a maze of spreading live-oak branches. In fact,
as stated in another connection, the extreme spreading habit of
live-oak limbs often produces a central leafless opening through
which the straight trunks of gum and laurel-oak tower above the
live-oak. Almost ubiquitous and tolerating a variety of conditions,
these two species are nevertheless seriously checked by the fire that
often sweeps the early successional stages of a secondary succession,
and by the dominance of magnolia and beech in the final climax
stage.
82 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The relations of the live-oak to laurel-oak and sweet-gum and
to other hardwoods in general merit some consideration. The live-
oak, although frequently appearing in the extremely shady hard-
woods, occurs there as a relatively spindly tree which became es-
tablished in an earlier and sunnier stage when competition for light
was not as keen. Sensitive to fire like other species of the modified
climax-hardwoods, the tree is present in this association partly for
the same reason as the others-namely, more or less freedom from
burning. As indicated above, the shade of this haven prevents
live-oak's reproduction, and consequently causes its ultimate elimina-
tion by more shade-enduring species. Even in the open spaces
where the live-oaks seem so imposing the species has its restric-
tions. Ample light allows it to spread in picturesque fashion, but
fire limits its choice of habitat to low moist grasslands, borders
of ponds and lakes, protected roadsides, and the vicinity of dwell-
ings. However, there are many such places; consequently, the
live-oak, with an abundance and apparent dominance peculiarly
accounted for, does not betray how unsuccessful it really is against
adverse factors like fire in the open, shade in the forest, or a
combination of both.
Walter's-pine, often appearing in numbers and situations like
a weed, is a universal element of hardwood complexes and mixed
climaxes. The most shade-tolerant of the pines and seemingly as
shade-enduring as most hardwoods, the relic trees of Walter's
pine often form a conspicious dark green element in the skyline
or display gigantic trunks under the cover of the forest. The eco-
logical relations and competitive status of the basswoods in the
modified climax forest are as yet unknown to me. In most cases
large magnolia or beech trees left as remnants in these climax-hard-
wood complexes and obvious evidence of cutting indicate clearly
that these extremely modified woods hark back to climax
conditions.
In some instances, however, where the modified climax-hard-
woods show a variety of large old deciduous trees, little or no evi-
dence of catastrophe, a clean understory, and only a single beech or
magnolia here and there, the chain of factors involved to produce
the association can only be conjectured. At any rate associations of
this nature offer the nearest local counter-parts of northern de-
ciduous forests and their concomitant "spring flowers." One such
mature stand, made up of large trees of laurel-oak, sweet-gum,
red-mulberry, leopard-oak, pignut hickory, basswood, sour-gum,
cherry, and other species, exists on the Meridian road one block
north of Tharp street. This rich tree association, heavy in shade,
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
has a scant understory of shrubs and a relatively clean forest floor
with a typical rich forest soil. Like others approximating the type,
this modified hardwood stand displays only a limited number of so-
called woodland flowers-Trillium Underwoodii, Sanguinaria cana-
densis, Polygonatum biflorum, Uvularia perfoliata, Muricauda
Dracontium, Arisaema triphyllum (in moist situations), Sanicula
canadensis, Spigelia marylandica, Viola Walteri, Mitchella repens
(in the spring), and two orchids, Hexalectris spicata and Tipularia
unifolia (in the summer). These perennials, plus a few more in-
conspicuous forbs, grasses, sedges, and ferns, make up the modest
but interesting herbs of most modified climax-hardwoods.
It is not difficult to find young fire-free hardwood associations
with red-mulberry, pignut hickory, sweet-gum, or basswood coming
up in the understory. As stated in connection with Perkins woods,
a liberal number of magnolia saplings may also be present. The
presence of the latter with the other young hardwoods points to
a temporary mixed climax and possibly to ultimate dominance of
magnolia and beech. However, in some instances a good number of
young hardwood species and individuals may be accompanied by
only a few scattered magnolia and beech saplings. From such an
assemblage and conditions could arise the particular type of modi-
fied climax forest considered in the previous paragraph. I have
seen one or two examples of young magnolias a foot or two high,
filtering into the open understory of an adult association of hard-
woods in that manner. Whether or not these instances presage a
subsequent full scale invasion of magnolia into old mixed hardwood
forests of this type I do not as yet know. Further study of suitable
situations having sustained freedom from fire and other interfer-
ence over a sufficiently long period of years might produce answers;
but the possibility of making such a study is dependent upon the
existence of an ideal situation that is hardly to be hoped for.
FLORISTIC COMPOSITION OF ASSOCIATIONS
AND
SUCCESSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES
In table 1 the species of the various associations are the
ones I have commonly noticed. Although each stand was visited
at least three times, further observations would undoubtedly
disclose other species that should be added to the list for some
particular association or have their ranges extended into adjacent
associations. Taking the present data as found, I have arranged
the species so that the signs indicating their presence, when read
84 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
vertically, will show the floristic composition of the different as-
sociations. When the signs are read horizontally, the table shows
the ecological range of each species in terms of associations, and,
in broader view, the successional stage at which each species
enters, those through which it persists, and that at which it falls
out-really the successional trends or dynamics of the vegetation
as a whole.
Reading the table from left to right, the reader familiar with
the growth forms of the species concerned will note how the pioneer
herbs, shrubs, and trees of the sunny, open, habitats yield to the
later more shade-tolerant herbaceous and woody plants. He will
observe, too, that in general the perennial pioneer herbs persist
for a longer time in the succeeding shade-casting pine or pine-
oak-hickory associations than the earliest annuals and biennials;
and, moreover, that the very perennials that outlast the latter do in
turn yield to a still more shade-tolerant association of herbs found
in the mature oak-hickory woods, or in pure climax forest.
Similar replacement will be seen on the part of the trees and
shrubs., The sun-loving pioneer pines, oaks, and hickories, for ex-
ample, finally give way to the most shade-tolerant trees, magnolia
and beech.
The reader should understand that the last three associations
at the extreme right (the pine-deciduous oak-hickory, the ever-
green oak-hardwood-pine, and the modified climax-hardwood)
are really not in sequence with the group of seven associations to
the left. Neither do they represent associations necessarily in se-
quence with each other, although when undisturbed the pine-
deciduous oak-hickory association usually goes into the evergreen
oak-hardwood-pine. These two associations, as explained else-
where, are held in their respective states by prevailing practices
of cutting, grazing, and burning. The modified climax-hardwoods,
on the other hand, seem to be the result of seriously modified or
set-back climax forests. Briefly, columns I to VII represent the
beginning and the culmination of the direct succession; whereas
columns A, B, and C are associations more or less arrested or set
back by major disturbances.
Naturally enough the middle of the table shows much overlap of
species and ranging to the left or right. Strikingly different,
though, are the species of herbs and woody plants in the pioneer
columns at the extreme left from those at the right where the
climax forest species are indicated. Some species, because of great
adaptability, range across a number of associations-Andropogon
spp., Ascyrum stans, and Quercus rubra triloba, for example; others,
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
more specific in their requirements, are restricted to a very limited
number of association types Tipularia unifolia, Viola Walteri,
Trillium Underwoodii, Leptamnium virginianum, and Sanguinaria
canadensis, for instance.
TABLE I WITH FLORISTIC COMPOSITION ON
FOLLOWING PAGES'
TABLE 1.-FLORISTIC COMPOSITION OF ASSOCIATIONS AND SUCCESSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES
SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Acalypha gracilens A. Gray
Amaranthus hybridus L.
Ambrina ambrosioides (L.) Spach.
Bidens bipinnata L.
Chamaesyce hyssopifolia (L.) Small
Cenchrus echinatus L.
Commelina longicaulis Jacq.
Eupatorium capillifolium (Lam.) Small
Lepidium virginicum L.
Linaria canadensis (L.) Dum.
Meibomia purpurea (Mill.) Vail
Passiflora incarnata L.
Plantago virginica L.
Poinsettia heterophylla (L.) Small
Raimannia laciniata (Hill.) Rose
Hilene antirrhina L.
Sitilias caroliniana (Walt.) Raf.
Specularia perfoliata (L.) A.DC.
Spermolepis divaricata (Walt.) Raf.
Quamoclit Quamoclit (L.) Britton
Xanthium americanum Walt.
Setaria geniculata (Lam.) Beauv.
Leptilon canadense (L.) Britton
Rumea hastatulus Baldw.
Heteropogon melanocarpus (Ell.) Benth.
Oenothera biennis L.
Digitaria villosa (Walt.) Pers.
Three-seeded mercury
Pigweed
Mexican-tea
Spanish-needles
Eye-bane
Hedgehog-grass
Baby-dewflower
Dog-fennel
Pepper-grass
Blue-toadflax
Florida-beggarweed
May-pop
Plantain
Painted-leaf
Evening primrose
Sleepy-catchfly
False-dandelion
Venus's looking-glass
Cypress vine x
Cocklebur x
Knotroot bristlegrass x
Horse-weed x
Dock x
Sweet tanglehead x
Common evening-primrose x
Crabgrass x
irauruiwis mrsuwa (mqinx.) INees
Corchorus acutangulus Lam.
Isopappus divaricatus (Nutt.) T.&G.
Sarothra gentianoides L.
Xanthoxalis Brittoniae Small
Gnaphalium obtusifolium L.
Erigeron ramosus (Walt) B.S.P.
Richardia scabra St. Hil.
Eupatorium compositifolium Walt.
Ambrosia elatior L.
Bignonia radicans L.
Diodella teres (Walt.) Small
Emelista Tora (L.) Britton and Rose
Eragrostis spectabilis (Pursh) Steud.
Polypremum procumbens L.
Rubus ouneifolius Pursh.
Rubus trivialis Michx.
Andropogon virginicus hirsutior
(Hack.) Hitchc.
Bivonea stimulosa (Michx.) Raf.
Cyperus retrorsus Chapm.
Meibomia ciliaris (Muhl.) Blake
Crotalaria rotundifolia (Walt.) Poir.
Sassafras Sassafras (L.) Karst.
Chamaecrista robusta Pollard
Andropogon Cabanisii Hack.
Andropogon virginicus L.
Love-grass
Jute
Pinweed
Sourgrass
Rabbit-tobacco
Daisy-fleabane
Mexican-clover
Dog-fennel
Ragweed
Cross-vine
Button-weed
Coffee-weed
Purple love-grass
Blackberry
Dewberry
Broom-sedge .. x
Spurge-nettle .. x .... .. .. .. x I
Galingale .. x x
Tick-trefoil .. x x .. .. .. x..
Rabbit-bells .. x x x x .. .. x ..
Sassafras .. x .. .. x x .. x
Sensitive-pea .. x x .. x x .. x ..
Broom-grass .. x x x x x .. .. x
Broom-sedge .. x x x x x .. ..
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
LEGEND
IV Pines
V Pine-oak-hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia-beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
t Glaring and improbable gaps like these may merely mean that I happen to have no positive record for these
stations in between.
i.
TABLE 1- (Continued)
SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Diospyros virginiana L.
Cyperus rotundus L.
Ascyrum hypericoides L.
Anychiastrum Baldwinii (T.&G.) Small
Chamaecrista littoralis Pollard
Chamaecrista procumbens (L.) Greene
Chamaecrista multipinnata Pollard
Oroton glandulosus septentrionalis
Muell. Arg.
Euthamia minor (Michx.) Greene
Lechea villosa Eli.
Meibomia laevigata (Nutt.) Kuntze
Meibomia viridiflora (L.) Kuntze
Solidago gracillima T.&G.
Persicaria longistyla Small
Asemeia grandiflora (Walt.) Small
Axonopus affinis Chase
Lespedeza virginica (L.) Britton
Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash
Triodia flava (L.) Smyth
Lespedeza repens (L.) Bart.
Lespedeza striata (Thunb.) H.&A.
Galypola incarnata (L.) Nieuwl.
Lespedeza frutescens (L.) Britton
Gnaphalium spathulatum Lam.
Andropogon ternarius Michx.
Gymnopogon ambiguous (Michx.) B.S.P.
Aristida purpurascens Poir.
Persimmon
Nut-grass
St. Andrew's-cross
Whitlow-wort
Sensitive-pea
Sensitive-pea
Wild sensitive-plant
Croton
Pinweed
Tick-trefoil
Tick-trefoil
Goldenrod
Smartweed
Candyweed
Carpet-grass
Bush-clover
Wood-grass
Sand-grass
Bush-clover
Japanese-clover
Procession-flower
Bush-clover
Cudweed
Broom-grass
Beard-grass
Wire-grass
.. x
x x
x x
Smilax glauca Walt.
Elephantopus tomentosus L.
Pinus echinata Mill.
Cynodon Dactylon (L.) Pers.
Agalinus fasciculata (Ell.) Raf.
Rhus Copallinum L.
Oarex styloflexa Buckley
Corallorrhiza Wisteriana Conrad
Eryngium synchaetum (A. Gray) Rose
Scleria ciliata Michx.
Asclepias tuberosa L.
Cracca chrysophylla (Pursh) Kuntze
Phaethusa virginica (L.) Small
Pityopsis graminifolia (Michx.) Nutt.
Viburnum rufidulum Raf.
Asimina parviflora (Michx.) Dunal
Batodendron arboreum (Marsh.) Nutt.
Castanea pumila (L.) Mill.
Erythrina herbacea L.
Habenaria quinqueseta (Michx.) Sw.
Helianthus montanus E. E. Watson
Tithymalopsis apocynifolia Small
Nemexia Hugeri Small
Quercus velutina Lam.
Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.
Nintooa japonica (Thunb.) Sweet
Wild-sarsaparilla
Elephant-foot
Short-leaf pine
Bermuda-grass
False-foxglove
Dwarf-sumac
Sedge
Coral-root
Eryngo
Nut-rush
Butterfly-weed
Hoary-pea
Frost-weed
Golden-aster
Southern black-haw
Small-fruited pawpaw
Sparkleberry
Chinquapin
Cardinal-spear
Longspur-orchid
Sunflower
Euphorbia
Carrion-flower
Black-oak
Sour-gum
Japanese-honeysuckle
LEGEND
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
IV Pines
V Pine-oak-hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia-beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
x
.. x
.. x
oo *.
o o
x x
x x
x x
x
x
x x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
TABLE 1- (Continued)
SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Agrimonia microcarpa Wallr.
Monotropa uniflora L.
Vernonia altissima Nutt.
Viola triloba dilatata Pollard
Eupatorium aromaticum L.
Galium bermudense L.
Houstonia procumbens (Walt.) Standley
Padus virginiana (L.) Mill.
Sericocarpus bifoliatus (Walt.) Porter
Silphium Asteriscus L.
Solidago Bootii Hook.
Vitis rufotomentosa Small
Sanicula canadensis L.
\Asplenium platyneuron (L.) Oakes
Cynoxylon floridum (L.) Raf.
Hicoria alba (L.) Britton
Liquidambar Styraciflua L.
Quercus laurifolia Michx.
Quercus nigra L.
Quercus rubra triloba (Michx.) Asie
Quercus stellata Wang.
Quercus virginiana Mill.
Pinus Taeda L.
Callicarpa americana L.
Mitchella repens L.
Muscadinia rotundifolia (Michx.) Small
Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.
Smilaxa Bona-nox L.
Agrimony
Indian-pipe
Ironweed
Violet
Wild-hoarhound
Bedstraw
Wild black-cherry
White-topped aster
Rosin-weed
Goldenrod
Wild-grape
Sanicle
Spleenwort fern
Flowering dogwood
Mockernut
Sweet-gum
Laurel-oak
Water-oak
Red-oak
Post-oak
Live-oak
Loblolly-pine
French-mulberry
Partridge-berry
Muscadine
Virginia-creeper
Bamboo
Toxicodendron radlcans (L.) Kuntze
Solidago hirsutissima Mill.
Strophostyles umbellata (Muhl.) Britton
Care floridana Schw.
Scutellaria Altamaha Small
Morus rubra L.
Smilax lanceolata L.
Magnolia grandiflora L.
Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.
Passiflora lutea L.
Aralia spinosa L.
Galium tinctorium L.
Ilem opaca Ait.
Aristolochia Serpentaria L.
Care tenax Chapm.
Anisostichus crucigera (L.) Bureau
Euonymus americanus L.
Galium triflorum Michx.
Galium uniflorum Michx.
Halesia diptera Ellis
Hicoria glabra (Mill.) Britton
Oplismenus setarius (Lam.) Roem & Schult.
Ostrya virginiana (Mill.) Willd.
Pinus glabra Walt.
Polystichum acrostichoides (Michx.) Schott
Smilaa pumila Walt.
Poison-ivy
Goldenrod
Wild-bean
Sedge
Skullcap
Red-mulberry
Jackson brier
Magnolia
Beech
Yellow passion-flower
Devil's-walking stick
Bedstraw-
Holly
Virginia-snakeroot
Sedge
Cross-vine
Strawberry-bush
Sweet-scented bedstraw
Bedstraw
Silverbell-tree
Pignut
Wood-grass
Ironwood
Walter's-pine
Christmas fern
Sarsaparilla-vine
LEGEND
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
IV Pines
V Pine-oak-hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia-beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
TABLE 1- (Continued)
SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Trillium Underwoodii Small
Leptamnium virginianum (L.) Raf.
Andropogon Elliottii Chapm.
Andropogon scoparius Michx.
Aristida lanosa Muhl.
Aster gracilipes (Wiegand) Alexander
Aureolaria flava reticulata (Raf.) Pennel
Baptisia psammophila Larisey
Celtis georgiana Small
Chrysopsis floridana Small
Chrysopsis mariana (L.) Nutt.
Cracca latidens Small
Cracca virginiana L.
Erianthus alopecuroides (L.) Ell.
Eupatorium album L.
Eupatorium incarnatum Walt.
Eupatorium jucundum Greene
Eupatorium lecheaefolium Greene
Eupatorium rotundifolium L.
Galactia floridana T.&G.
Galactia volubilis (L.) Britton
Galium pilosum Ait.
Hieracium Gronovii L.
Kuhnia Mosieri Small
Laciniaria spicata (L.) Kuntze
Leptoglottis floridana (Chapm.) Small
Lespedeza hirta (L.) Ell.
Lobelia puberula Michx.
Wake-robin
Beech-drops
Broom-grass
Broom-grass
Wire-grass
Aster
Yellow-foxglove
False indigo
Georgia-hackberry
Golden-aster
Golden-aster
Hoary-pea
Cat-gut
Woolly beard-grass
False-hoarhound
Milk-pea
Milk-pea
Bedstraw
Hawkweed
False-boneset
Blazing-star
Sensitive-briar
Bush-clover
Lobelia
.. .. ., .. -x
.. .. .. .. .
..~ .. ., .
.. .. .. .
..~ .. .. .. .
..~ .. .. .. .
.. .. .
.. .. .. .
,, ~ ~ .. .. .
.. .. ,
.. ,
.. .. .
.. .. .
,, ,, ,, .. .
..~ ., .
.. .. .. .. .. .
.. .
.. .. .. .. .
..~ .. ., .
.. .. .. .
.. .. .. .
.. .. .. .. .. ..
x x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x .
IA ,
I e
I o
I e
Martiusia mariana (L.) Small
Meibomia arenicola Vail
Meibomia Chapmanii (Britton) Small
Meibomia rhombifolia (Ell.) Vail
Monarda punctata L.
Phlox pilosa L.
Pityopsis microcephala Small
Pterophyton aristatum (Ell.) Alexander
Quercus marilandica Muench.
Rudbeckia hirta L.
Sorghastrum secundum (Ell.) Nash
Solidago odora Ait.
Sporobolus gratilis (Trin.) Merr.
Trichostema dichotomum L.
Amarolea americana (L.) Small
Angelica dentata (Chapm.) Coult. & Rose
Asclepias verticillata L.
Biventraria variegata (L.) Small
Bradburya virginiana (L.) Kuntze
Ceanothus americanus L.
Dyschoriste oblongifolia (Michx.) Kuntze
Laurocerasus caroliniana (Mill.) Roem.
Manfreda virginica (L.) Salisb.
Melanthera hastata Michx.
Meibomia nudiflora (L.) Kuntze
Butterfly-pea
Tick-trefoil
Tick-trefoil
Tick-trefoil
Horse-mint
Downy-phlox
Golden-aster
Black-jack oak
Yellow-daisy
Indian-grass
Sweet-goldenrod
Dropseed grass
Bastard-pennyroyal
Wild-olive
Angelica
Milkweed
Milkweed
Butterfly-pea
New Jersey tea
Wild cherry-laurel
Rattlesnake-master
Tick-trefoil
LiG END
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
IV Pines
V Pine-oak-hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia-beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
x
x
x
x
x
x
X
x
x
x
x
x
x x
x x
X x
x x
x x
I x
x x
x x
x X
x x
x x
TABLE 1- (Continued)
SocImsE ro NaMi COMMON NAME I 11 III IV V VI VII A B C
Phoebanthus grandiflora (T.&G.) Blake
Rosa serrulata Raf.
Ruellia hybrtda Pursh.
Salvia azurea Lam.
Scutellaria integrifolia L.
Smilam auriculata Walt.
Sporobolus Poiretii
(Roem. and Schult.) Hitchc.
Vernonia ovalifolia T.&G.
Pteris latiuscula Desv.
Sanicula floridana Bicknell
Phenianthus sempervirens (L.) Raff.
Phryma leptostachya L.
Quercus Shumardfi Buckl.
Sanguinaria canadensis L.
Vernonia angustifolia Michx.
Aesoulus Pavia L.
Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Torr.
chionanthus virginfca L.
Collinsonia canadensis L.
Conoclinium coelestinum (L.) DC.
Elephantopus carolinianus Willd.
Galium circaezans Michx.
Hexalectris spicata (Walt.) Barnhart
Ilex ambigua (Michx.) Chapm.
Ilea vomitoria Ait.
Malus angustifolia (Alt.) Michx.
Muricauda Draoontium (L.) Small
Wild rose
Sage
Skullcap
Wild-bamboo
Drop-seed grass
Ironweed
Bracken fern
Snake-root
Trumpet-honeysuckle
Lopseed
Leopard-oak
Blood-root
Ironweed
Buckeye
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Fringe-tree
Horse-balm
Mist-flower
Elephant-foot
Wild liquorice
Brunetta orchid
Holly
Yaupon
Wild crab-apple
Green-dragon
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. x x
x x
x x
x x
x x
x X
Parthenium integrifolium L.
Polygonatum biflorum (Walt.) Ell.
Smallanthu8 Uvedalia (L.) Mackenzie
Smilaa hispida Muhl.
Tilia caroliniana Mill.
Tipularia unifolia (Muhl.) B.S.P.
Uniola sessiliflora Poir.
Uvularia perfoliata L.
Vernonia gigantea (Walt.) Trelease
Viburnum semitomentosum (Michx.) Rehder
Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl.
Botrychium alabamense Maxon
Carpinus caroliniana Walt.
Cercis canadensis L.
(rataegus uniflora Muench.
Cyperus globulosus Aubl.
Fraxinus americana L.
Galium pilosum laevicaule
Hicoria austrina Small
Hicoria glabra megacarpa (Sarg.) Sudw.
Hicoria microcarpa (Nutt.) Britton
Osmundopteris virginiana (L.) Small
Quercus alba L.
Quercus Prinus L.
Rufacer rubrum (L.) Small
Symplocos tinctoria (L.) L'Her.
Solomon's-seal
Bear-foot
Hagbrier
Basswood
Cranefly-orchid
Spike-grass
Straw-bell
Ironweed
Arrow-wood
Small-cane
Moonwort fern
Hornbeam
Red-bud
Dwarf-thorn
Galingale
White-ash
Bedstraw
Hickory
Hickory
Small-pignut
Rattlesnake-fern
White-oak
Cow-oak
Red-maple
Sweetleaf
LEGaND
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
IV Pines
V Pine-oak--hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia--beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
x
x
x
x
x
X
X
X
X
X
..
..
..
.. x
..
..
Sx
.
X
X
X..
X..
x
X..
.. X
.. X
.. .. .. .. .. X
.. .. .. .. .. X
.. .. .. .. .. X
TABLE 1-(Continued)
SCIENTIFIC NAME COMMON NAME I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Tilia georgiana Sarg. Basswood ........ .. ... .. x x
Tilia heterophylla Vent. Basswood ........ .... .. x x
Viola Walteri House Violet ..... x x
Conopholis americana (L.f.) Wallr. Cancer-root .... ... .... x
Cyperus compressus L. Galingale .. ...... .. .... x
Eupatorium trifoliatum L. Joe-pye-weed .... .. ... .... .... x
Kyllinga odorata Vahl. x..
Muhlcnbergia Schreberi Gmel. Nimble-will.............. .... x
Phytolacca americana L. Poke .............. .. x
Sambucus canadensis L. Common-elder .. ...... ...... .... x
Stenophyllus barbatus (Rottb.) Britton Water-grass .. ....... .... .... x
Tamala Borbonia (L.) Raf. Red-bay .............. .. .. x
LEGEND
I Annuals
II Biennials
III Perennials
IV Pines
V Pine--oak-hickory
VI Mature oak-hickory
VII Magnolia-beech climax
A Pine-deciduous oak-hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
C Modified climax-hardwoods
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
SUCCESSION OF PANICUM SPECIES
By concentrating on different groups of species within a genus
or family (Panicum, Andropogon, Quercus, Compositae or Legumi-
nosae, for examples) or even on growth forms (grasses, forbs,
annuals, biennials, perennials, trees, or shrubs) the student will
find that the table reveals some interesting tendencies and relations.
Following this suggestion I have treated separately the many
species of Panicum (Table 2). One sees at a glance that P. aciculare
and P. arenicoloides are the first to appear, the former coming
soon after the broom-sedges. Then follow additional species into
the later dog-fennel-broom-sedge associations, these ranging into
the pine-oak-hickory stage. The species persisting from dog-
fennel-broom-sedge, together with still more Panicum species
rather partial to pine-oak-hickory result in considerable bunch-
ing at this stage. If through disturbance the woods develop into
TABLE 2.-SUCCESSION OF PANICUM SPECIES
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Panicum aciculare Desv.
P. arenicoloides Ashe
P. lanuginosum Ell.
P. angustifolium Ell.
P. oligosanthes Schult.
P. xalapense H.B.K.
P. villosissimum Nash.
P. Boscii molle (Vasey)
Hitchc. and Chase
P. ovale Ell.
P. Lindheimeri Nash
P. ciliatum Ell.
P. chrysopsidifolium Nash
P. sphaerocarpon Ell.
P. Boscii Poir.
P. mutabile Scribn. & Smith
P. commutatum Schult.
P. Joorii Vasey
P. Ashei Pearson
P. Commonsianum Ashe
P. rhizomatum
Hitchc. and Chase
P. albomarginatum Nash
I Annuals IV Pines
II Biennials V Pine-oak-hickory
III Perennials VI Mature oak-hickory
I II III IV V VI VII A B C
Sx
LEGEND
A Pine-deciduous oak-
hickory
B Evergreen oak-hardwoods
VII Magnolia-beech climax C Modified climax-hardwoods
98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
an open pine-deciduous oak-hickory association the number of
Panicum species reaches a maximum. If, on the other hand, there
is little or no molestation and the young pine-oak-hickory which
ordinarily follows the broom-sedge-dog-fennel grows rapidly into
a shady forest, the Panicums of the open habitats disappear. Only
a few species may now be found, Panicum villosissimum being the
common one. By the time the climax is reached the species are
reduced to one or to none. The only rather large tract of undis-
turbed beech-magnolia climax studied (Dr. George Gwynn prop-
erty, five miles west of Tallahassee on Federal Highway 90) showed
rather consistently only Panicum Joorii.
To summarize, we find within the genus Panicum marked habi-
tat preferences; one or two species are extremely early pioneers in
recent fields, many occur in disturbed or mixed woods of various
types, and only very few species are found in shady pine groves
or in a representative magnolia-beech climax. More investiga-
tions may well necessitate modifications in the table. In any event
it is hoped that the data thus marshalled may serve as a basis for
future studies.
SUMMARY
1. In unburned situations of the Tallahassee red hills secon-
dary succession proceeds rather rapidly through five associations
or stages: (1) the annual-biennial ruderal, (2) perennial dog-
fennel-broom-sedge, (3) the short-leaf pine, (4) pine-oak-
hickory, and (5) the final magnolia-beech climax.
2. The dense short-leaf pine association often open as to trees
follows dog-fennel-broom-sedge associations where fires are ab-
sent or not too severe. Its species are few.
3. The open pine-deciduous oak-hickory association is caused
by fire, grazing, cutting, and other disturbance. It is rich in
species of grasses and forbs. Cessation of burning means termi-
nation of this association.
4. Magnolia appears early in unburned or generally undisturbed
pine or pine--deciduous oak-hickory woods.
5. Magnolia, beech, laurel-oak, water-oak, and even sweet-gum
are excluded indefinitely in periodically burned pine or pine-de-
ciduous oak-hickory woods.
6. Post-oak and black-oak, apparently fire opportunists, appear
in abundance in the very pine-deciduous oak-hickory woods where
yearly fires and a thick ground cover exclude laurel-oak, water-
oak, sweet-gum, and magnolia.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION IN RED HILLS
7. With reference to oaks it must be emphasized that red-oak,
coming in early under pines, persists, ffie or no fire; that laurel-
oak especially, and water-oak to a degree, are set back or excluded
by fires; and that post-oak and black-oak, appearing after red-
oak, succeed in burned situations inimical to laurel-and water-oaks,
and to young magnolias.
8. Sapling magnolias occur frequently in young oak-hard-
wood forests or thickets which are characterized by a relatively
clean unburned forest floor, rich in leaf mold or pine needle mulch.
9. There is almost universal absence of young magnolias in
the shade of mature parent trees, indicating that a magnolia
climax does not perpetuate itself by starting its offspring in place.
This lack of perpetuation in situ is very noteworthy, since repro-
duction is given as one of the distinguishing characters of the
beech-sugar maple climax forests of the North. In modified
climax-hardwood stands marked by large trees, dense shade, and
clean floor there is the same paucity of magnolia invasion or re-
production. Magnolia and beech invasion seems most frequent in
unburned pine or pine-deciduous oak-hickory or in evergreen
oak-hardwoods where trees are small, leaf mold abundant, and
floor not crowded with herbs, vines, or sprouts. Beech invasion,
however, is not as early as magnolia, not appearing, for example, in
unburned young pine stands.
10. The initial and end stages of the typical secondary succes-
sion display very different combinations of herbs. First come
the annuals and biennials in full sun; then the perennial herbs also
fully exposed; next perennial herbs typical of the shade of pines
or pine-deciduous oak-hickory; and last the meager deep-shade
flora of the climax. Like the arboreal associations, the grasses
and forbs follow a definite order of succession, typical communities
paralleling the successive tree associations.
11. Panicum, a large genus of grasses, is represented by ap-
proximately twenty common species in the successions. Typically
Panicum arenicoloides 'and P. aciculare appear in the dog-fennel-
broom-sedge stage; P. angustifolium, P. lanuginosum, P. zalapense,
and P. villosissimum in the pines or open pine-deciduous oak-
hickory; P. Boscii and relics of the previous stage are often present
in evergreen oak-hardwoods or in modified climax-hardwoods.
And P. Joorii is the usual one left in the climax. There is a pro-
nounced bunching of species in the various types or gradations of
pine-deciduous oak-hickory associations.
12. Evergreen oak-hardwoods develop from pine-deciduous
oak-hickory associations if and when fire is banned.
100 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
13. Of the commoner trees of the modified climax-hardwoods,
pignut hickory seems to have the most restricted ecological range,
for though it is the last species to yield to magnolia, it appears
much later than sweet-gum, laurel-oak, and water-oak, also mem-
bers of the modified climax-hardwoods.
14. If the understory and ground floor are relatively clean, rich
in mulch, and not too shady, the modified climax-hardwood forests
are characterized by a typical though sparse assemblage of spring
and summer woodland flowers and ferns.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
A BARK CHARACTER FOR THE IDENTIFICATION
OF CERTAIN FLORIDA PINES
WILBUR B. DE VALL
United States Forest Service
The purpose of this paper is to describe a hitherto unused
taxonomic character present in the bark of certain Florida pines,
which taken in connection with other year-round needle and cone
characteristics, makes identification of these species easy and
certain at any time.
The distribution of this bark character has been studied in all
the pines found in the southeastern United States, but only those
species native to Florida are here treated. These are (1) longleaf
pine (Pinus australis Michx. f.), (2) swamp pine (Pinus palustris
Mill.), (3) shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.), (4) loblolly pine
(Pinus Taeda L.), (5) slash pine (Pinus caribaea Mor.), (6) pond
pine (Pinus serotina Michx.), (7) spruce pine (Pinus glabra
Walt.), (8) sand pine (Pinus clausa Englm.).
Bark samples were taken from these and other species over
a wide area, extending from Florida through Georgia, Tennessee
and North Carolina. Numerous samples were obtained from each
species from many localities within this territory.
The discussion which follows requires an elementary knowl-
edge of the structure and mode of formation of tree bark. The
surface of the tip of a young stem is covered only by a thin epi-
dermis, but this is soon replaced by true bark. Beneath the
epidermis there forms a layer known as the periderm, of which
the essential part is a sheet of cells called the cork cambium or
phellogen1.
By rapid cell division the phellogen gives rise on the outside
to layers of dead, hollow, cork-walled cells that constitute the
phellem or cork layer, and on the inside to thinner-walled living
cells, the phelloderm. In some plants the original periderm per-
sists for long periods, or even during the entire life of the plant;
but in most trees as the stem enlarges new layers of periderm form
beneath the earlier ones. The phellogen of each such zone soon
produces its corky phellem layer, which, being impermeable, cuts
off all tissues outside from access to food and water. The cells
1Entirely distinct from the vascular cambium, which lies deeper within
the stem, giving rise on the inside to xylem or wood, and on the outside
to the phloem or food-carrying tissues that make up the innermost por-
tions of the "bark."
102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
of all layers outside of the innermost and most recent phellem
layer are therefore a part of the lifeless outer bark of the tree.
In many trees this dead outer bark scales off rapidly and only a
thin covering is present at any one time; but in trees like pines
it clings for some time and the bark attains some thickness,
splitting with the radial growth of the tree into plates or scales
with their long axes parallel to the axis of the trunk.
On account of the method of formation described above, the
outer bark of a pine comes to consist of alternating layers of
phellem, brownish in color, and of dead phellogen cells. It is the
phellogen layers that are of use in identification, for in one group
of species they are ivory-white and contrast strongly with the
brown phellem layers, while in a second group of species they are
relatively inconspicuous and at most slate-gray in color. They are
best seen by cutting longitudinally through the outer bark to the
depth of the fissures, especially if the cut is made oblique to the
radial plane. An axe cut will serve, but use of a knife is preferable.
The Florida species having ivory-white, conspicuous phellogen
lines are: Pinus australis, P. palustris, P. echinata, P. caribaea,
P. glabra, and P. clausa. In the remaining two species (P. Taeda
and P. serotina) the lines are inconspicuous or at most slate-gray
in color.
This bark character has been tried out over a period of three
years in a course in Dendrology given by the author at the Uni-
versity of Florida. It has proven particularly useful in the Gaines-
ville area for separating loblolly pine from swamp pine when other
characters failed. An incident that occurred in the course of a
timber cruise on the University of Florida Conservation Reserve
at Welaka illustrates the field value of the character. Data were
being recorded by species, and several pines were encountered in
the jungle-like mass of vines and hardwoods so thick that the
tops could not be seen. A knife cut through the outer bark
sufficed, with what was known as to the species occurring in that
area, to make the identification certain. On another occasion a
core taken with an increment borer from a tree with a turpentine
"face" showed by its bark section that the tree was actually a
pond pine and not a swamp pine as one would naturally suppose.
The phellogen lines are not in themselves sufficient for species
identification, and the character finds its most useful application
as an aid to other means of recognition and in areas where the
distribution by species is known, so that some species can be eli-
minated from consideration.
A BARK CHARACTER OF CERTAIN PINES
KEY TO THE SPECIES OF NATIVE FLORIDA PINES
1. Fascicle sheath more than one-half inch in length on year-old needles
............ ...................................... ........ Pinus australis (Longleaf pine)
1'. Fascicle sheath less than one-half inch in length on year-old needles 2
2. (1'). Needles more than four inches long......................................... 3
2'. Needles less than four inches long...... ....................... ........ 6
3. (2). Phellogen lines conspicuous, ivory-white..................... ........ 4
3'. Phellogen lines inconspicuous, or slate-gray................................ 5
4. (3). Resin canals of the needle two or three, as shown by the number
of resin droplets visible with hand lens on cut surface of cross-section
made with razor or sharp knife ................Pins palustris (Swamp pine)
4'. Resin canals four to nine (average seven) in cross section of needle
...... ... ......................... ....................Pinus caribaea (Slash pine)
5. (3'). Cones cylindrical, scales armed with long sharp
prickles................................ ......................Pinu8 Taeda (Loblolly pine)
5'. Cones ovoid, scales armed with short, sharp
prickles .................... ............................Pinus Serotina (pond pine)
6. (2'). Needles two or three per fascicle; stem of new-growth twigs
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945)
6'. Needles two per fascicle, twigs not glaucous....................................... 7
7. (6'). Tree normally growing in mixture with hardwoods; needles
flexible and twisted...............................Pinus glabra (Spruce pine)
7'. Tree normally growing on dunes and dry sandy soil; needles stout,
only occasionally twisted.................... ........Pinus clausa (Sand pine)
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
A STATION FOR RHODODENDRON CHAPMANII IN
EASTERN FLORIDA
HENRY R. TOTTEN, MAJOR, F. A.
University of North Carolina
Rhododendron Chapmanii A. Gray is herewith reported as grow-
ing in Camp Blanding, Clay County, Florida. Over sixty clumps
have been counted growing along a sandy bluff of the branch of
Black Creek that drains Kingsley Lake. The plants are now in
two groups, with about two hundred yards between the two groups.
Considerable engineering work for drainage and bank control, in-
cluding a large fill, will account for the separation of the two
groups.
Rhododendron Chapmanii has been credited in the literature to
low pine woods of West Florida. This station is distinctly East
Florida, and is less than forty miles from the Atlantic Coast.
The plants reported for the new station were first observed
in flower on March 17, 1942. Flowering continued into April.
Kodachrome transparencies were made, and specimens of flower-
ing branches have been deposited in the Herbarium of the Uni-
versity of North Carolina.
Rhododendron clumps in this station are associated with Sand,
or Spruce-pine (Pinus clausa), Saw-palmetto (Serenoa repens),
Wild-bamboo (Smilax auriculata), Sarsaparilla-vine (Smilax pu-
mila), Scrub-oak (Quercus myrtifolia), Twin live-oak (Quercus
geminata = Q. virginiana var. geminata), Chapman's-oak (Quercus
Chapmanii), Red-bay (Persea Borbonia), Black-titi (Cyrilla ra-
cemiflora), American-holly (Ilex opaca), Gallberry (Ilex glabra),
Wild-olive (Amarolea americana), Stagger-bushes (Xolisma fer-
ruginea and Xolisma fruticosa), Dwarf-huckleberry (Cyanococcus
Myrsinites) and Muscadine (Muscadinia rotundifolia).
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
WILLIAM A. MURRILL
University of Florida
This is a continuation of my reports on the fungi of the state
which have appeared in the "Torrey Bulletin," "Mycologia,"
"Lloydia" and elsewhere. The fleshy fungi must be studied while
they are fresh. Many of our finest and most distinctive species
develop during the summer rains. It was not until I became an
all-year resident of Florida that I realized the richness and novelty
of her fungous flora. Several hundred new species have already
been discovered and others are still to be found. Among these
are many edible varieties. Some of our most destructive tree
diseases also belong to this group. The scientific names here
used correspond to those used by me in "North America Flora."
For those more familiar with Saccardo's nomenclature I have
appended a list of equivalents. All the specimens cited are in the
herbarium of the Florida Agricultural Experiment Station at
Gainesville.
Clitocybe alachuana sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-depresso, avellaneo, 6 cm. lato, felleo; lamellis angustatis,
albis, sporis globosis, 4 u; stipite albo, tomentoso, 2 X 0.8 cm.
Pileus convex to depressed, irregular, solitary, about 6 cm. broad;
surface dry, uneven, subglabrous, margin incurved, even, lobed; context
very thin, white, unchanging, very bitter at once; lamellae decurrent,
unusually narrow, close, some forked halfway, entire, white, pale yellowish
when dry; spores globose, smooth, hyaline, uninucleate, about 4 ; stipe
equal, white, tomentose, especially at the base, 2 X 0.8 cm.
Type collected by West, Arnold and Murrill on dead leaves in Prairie
Creek Hammock, July 15, 1938 (F17903). A very bitter species with
grayish cap and close, narrow gills.
Clitocybe concaviformis sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, nigro, subglabro, 1 cm. lato; lamellis praedecurrentibus,
praedistantibus, albis; sports globosis, 4 /; stipite glabro, albo, 2 cm.
long.
Pileus convex, slightly depressed, solitary, 1 cm. broad; surface dry,
subglabrous, opaque, smooth, uniformly black, margin even, entire; con-
text thin, pallid, unchanging; lamellae long-decurrent, very distant, rather
broad, arcuate, inserted, entire, white; spores globose or subglobose,
smooth, hyaline, 1-guttulate, about 4 p; stipe subequal, smooth, glabrous,
white, about 2 X 0.25 cm.
Type collected by West, Arnold and Murrill on an oak log in Planera
Hammock, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla., July 16, 1938
(F17889). About as black above as a mushroom ever gets, and white all
below. Apparently very rare in this region.
108 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Clitocybe luteiceps sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 8 cm. lato, glabro, luteo, substriato, anisato, grato;
lamellis subdecurrentibus, angustatis, confertis, luteiflavis; sporis ovoideis,
7-8 X 4-5 I; stipite concolori, 2 X 1.5-2 cm.
Pileus convex to plane with a slight central depression, 8 cm. broad;
surface moist, dull, smooth, glabrous, uniformly luteous, margin subundu-
late, slightly striate over the lamellae, fertile, straight at maturity, con-
colorous; context thin, dull-yellowish, unchanging, with anise odor and
mild taste; lamellae pallid, inserted, crowded, narrow, broadest behind
and slightly decurrent, edges entire and luteiflavous; spores ovoia or
ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, 1-guttulate, about 7-8 X 4-5 /; cystidia none;
stipe short, strongly tapering downward, slightly roughened with short
ridges and pits, dull, luteous, 2 X 1.5-2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in leaf-mold under a laurel oak in
a virgin high hammock at Gainesville, Fla., Oct. 9, 1943 (F 20029). A
beautiful species, unusual in color both on the cap and on the edges of
the gills. On drying the cap becomes shining reddish-fulvous, while the
stem does not change. At first sight I thought of Flammula.
Clitocybe Rappiana sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, 5 8 cm. lato, pruinoso, latericio; lamellis albis,
abundantibus, sporis ovoideis, 3-4 X 2.5-3 A; stipite albo, 4-5 X 0.5-0.7 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, gregarious, 5-8 cm. broad; surface dry,
minutely tomentose, not becoming glabrous, uniformly latericious or with
a small bay disk; margin even, subentire, fertile, uplifted in age; context
thick, milk-white, unchanging, reddish under the cuticle, odor slightly
farinaceous, taste somewhat farinaceous, becoming slightly astringent,
scarcely bitter; lamellae short-decurrent, arcuate, narrow, exceedingly close,
3 to a mm., several times inserted, many forked near the base, entire, pure-
white, unchanging, stramineous when dried; spores broadly ovoid, smooth,
hyaline, uniguttulate, 3-4 X 2.5-3 /; cystidia none; stipe curved, equal,
glabrous, milk-white, unchanging, 4-5 X 0.5-0.7 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on the ground under hardwood trees
in a high hammock near Hunter's Station, west of Gainesville, Fla.,
August 10, 1938 (F 18028). A very beautiful species, suggesting 0. inversa
(Scop.) Qul. but having white flesh and white, unchanging gills. Mr.
S. Rapp, of Sanford, Fla., was with us, collecting lichens, so I named
this handsome novelty in his honor.
Clitocybe submedia sp. nov.
Pileo infundibuliformi, 4.5 cm. lato, glabro, striato, avellaneo, disco
fuligineo; lamellis distantibus, pallidis; sports globosis, 5 j; stipite glabro,
avellaneo, 3 X 0.4 cm.
Pileus infundibuliform, solitary, 4.5 cm. broad; surface dry, glabrous,
avellaneous, fuliginous at the center, margin widely striate and split;
context very thin, pallid, odorless; lamellae short-decurrent, inserted, dis-
tant, medium broad, pallid, entire; spores globose, smooth, hyaline, about
5 1; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, avellaneous, white at
the apex, 3 X 0.4 cm.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on the ground in Planera Hammock,
eleven miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla., Aug. 2, 1938 (F19S38). Not
found elsewhere. Suggesting C. media Pk. in color but smaller and having
very different spores.
Geopetalum alachuanum sp. nov.
Pileo subcirculari, 1.5 cm. lato, glabro, avellaneo; lamellis an-
gustatis, confertis, albis; sporis ellipsoideis, 6 X 4 p; cystidiis hyalinis,
35 X 15 A; stipite lateral, tuberculari, albo, pruinoso.
Pileus subcircular, slightly depressed, solitary, 1.5 cm. broad; surface
smooth, glabrous, shining, uniformly dark-avellaneous with an isabelline
tint, margin deflexed, even, entire; context thin, white, odorless; lamellae
decurrent, inserted, very narrow, crowded, white, unchanging, denticulate;
spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, about 6 X 4 /; cystidia abundant, taper-
ing from a broad base to a sharp point, smooth, hyaline, projecting about
35 X 15 p; stipe lateral, very short, white, pruinose.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on dead frondose wood at Newnan's
Lake, Alachua Co., Fla., July 9, 1938 (F 19357). Not found elsewhere.
Gymnopus amarus sp. nov.
Pileo conico-convexo, 2 cm. lato, avellaneo, amaro; sports ellipsoideis,
5 6 X 3 4 p; stipite albo, 3 X 0.3 0.6 cm.
Pileus conic-convex, not expanding, cespitose, 2 cm. broad; surface
dry, smooth, glabrous, avellaneous, the disk tinged with isabelline, margin
even, entire, inflexed; context thin, gray, opaque, bitter at once, odorless;
lamellae adnate, inserted, narrow, close, white, unchanging, entire to
eroded; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, uniguttulate, 5-6 X 3 4 ;
stipe tapering upward, smooth, glabrous, white, 3 X 0.3- 0.6 cm.
Type collected by West and Murrill on a much-decayed pine log in
Sugarfoot Hammock, near Gainesville, Fla., August 4, 1938 (F 17336).
Gray above and white below, with bitter flesh.
Gymnopus praemultifolius sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, imbricato, 3.5-4.5 cm. lato, pallide livido-
castaneo, amaro; lamellis adnatis, superabundantibus, sporis subglobosis,
1.5-2 /; stipite excentrico, pallido, 2-5 X 0.2-0.5 cm.
Pileus elliptic or circular, convex to subexpanded, slightly depressed
or umbilicate at times, densely imbricate, 3.5-4.5 cm. broad; surface
smooth, hygrophanous, glabrous in front, whitish-pruinose behind, pale
livid-chestnut; margin incurved, even, lobed at times; context very thin,
dull-whitish, fragrant like anise, bitter at once; lamellae emarginate-
adnate, inserted, some forked, arcuate, narrow, remarkably crowded,
avellaneous, isabelline with age or on drying, edges entire; spores sub-
globose, smooth, hyaline, uniguttulate, 1.5-2 /; stipe eccentric, subequal,
pruinose, spongy-stuffed, pale yellowish-white, 2-5 X 0.2-0.5 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a rotten hardwood log in the shade,
at Gainesville, Fla., July 7, 1938 (F 17468). A pale-liver-colored species
occurring in dense imbricate masses on much-decayed hardwood logs
in woods, and remarkable for its crowded gills, which number about 4 to
a mm., the spaces between appearing as very fine lines. Found several
times in the vicinity.
110 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Gymnopus subluxurians sp. nov.
Pileo 5-7.5 cm. lato, atro-roseo-isabellino; sapore dulci; sports ovoideis,
hyalinis, 7-8 X 5-6 A; stipite subconcolori, 5-7 cm. long.
Pileus convex, often umbonate, gregarious, 5-7.5 cm. broad; surface
smooth, dry, glabrous, uniformly dark rosy-isabelline or fulvous on the
disk and isabelline toward the margin; context thin, white, sweet;
lamellae adnexed, subconcolorous, narrow, crowded, entire; spores ovoid,
tapering at one end, smooth, hyaline, 7-8 X 5-6p; stipe usually bent
near the base, tapering upward, twisted, subglabrous, subconcolorous,
whitish-mycelioid below, slender, 5-7 cm. long.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in humus on a shaded lawn at Gaines-
ville, Fla., August 18, 1937 (F 15945). Also picked up several other times
by the author on lawns in Gainesville, often growing in the grass without
visible humus.
Marasmius Westii sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 1.5-2 mm. lato, roseo-isabellino; lamellis adnatis, dis-
tantibus, sporis 6 X 3 /A; stipite glabro, nigro, 2 mm. long.
Pileus convex, not fully expanding, gregarious, 1.5-2 mm. broad; sur-
face dry, uneven, pruinose, uniformly rosy-isabelline, margin paler, sulcate
at times over the lamellae; context membranous, rosy-isabelline, astringent,
odorless; lamellae adnate, distant, about 10 in number, sometimes inserted,
broad, entire, pallid; spores pip-shaped, smooth, hyaline, 1-2-guttulate,
about 6 X 3 z; stipe central or eccentric, straight or curved, smooth,
glabrous, shining, blackish, very slender, about 2 mm. long, attached
either to a rhizomorph or the substratum; rhizomorphs aerial, hair-like,
very long and creeping, with short branches, smooth, glabrous, shining,
black.
Type collected by Erdman West on dead sticks of laurel oak at Swan
Lake, Fla., June 26, 1938 (F 17211). A minute membranous species as-
sociated with long hair-like rhizomorphs which creep over the surface of
the substratum.
Melanoleuca subterreiformis sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, 4-5 cm. lato, subviscido, umbrino, radiato-
fibrilloso, farinaceo; lamellis confertis, albis; sports ellipsoideis,
4-5 X 2-3 p; stipite umbrino, 4 X 0.7-1 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, solitary, 4-5 cm. broad; surface slightly
viscid, umbrinous on the disk, with radiating fibrils of the same color,
the broad marginal zone pallid, even, entire; context thin, white, unchang-
ing, odor slight, taste decidedly farinaceous and agreeable; lamellae
shallowly sinuate with slight decurrent tooth, crowded, ventricose, broad,
inserted, very thin, entire, white; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline,
4-5 X 2-3 u; cystidia none; stipe subequal, slightly enlarged at apex and
base, dry, solid, umbrinous with black parallel lines, 4 X 0.7-1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in low woods of oak, hickory, etc.
near Seven-mile Church, west of Gainesville, Fla., Dec. 16, 1941
(F19995). Found but once. Related to M. subterrea Murr., described
from pine woods in Alabama.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
Melanoleuca Watsonli sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, 6-13 cm. lato, glabro, griseo, farinaceo; lamellis
albis vel subgriseis, sports ellipsoideis, 4 X 2.5 p; stipite glabro, albo,
4-7 X 1.5-3 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, gregarious to subcespitose, reaching 13 cm.
broad; surface smooth, glabrous, shining, pale-griseous to dark-griseous
or murinous, margin even, becoming irregular or upturned with age;
context thick, firm, white, unchanging, odor farinaceous, unpleasant in
older caps, taste bitter-farinaceous; lamellae sinuate, adnate or slightly
decurrent, medium broad and medium close, inserted, entire, white, some-
times pale-griseous with age; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, about
4 X 2.5 A; stipe subequal, not bulbous, solid, smooth, glabrous, white,
4-7 X 1.5-3 cm.
Type collected by J. R. Watson and W. A. Murrill in low ground
under live-oak in the west edge of Melrose, Alachua Co., Jan. 26, 1941
(F 1512). Found in abundance at this one spot but not known from
elsewhere. Related to M. subargillacea Murrill, described from Alabama.
Monadelphus Watsonii sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 5-6 cm. lato, subfulvo, praefibrilloso, grato, anisato;
lamellis praedecurrentibus, integris; sporis ovoideis, 7 X 5 p; stipite
striato, squamoso, pallido, 10 X 1-2 cm.
Pileus convex, not fully expanding, cespitose, 5-6 cm. broad; surface
dry, uniformly pale-fulvous, densely fibrillose, margin incurved, even,
entire; context white, unchanging, mild, with odor of anise; lamellae de-
cidedly decurrent, inserted, moderately broad, subdistant, entire, brownish
when dry; spores ovoid, smooth, hyaline, uniguttulate, about 7 X 5 p;
cystidia none; stipe tapering downward, tough, longitudinally striate,
pallid, solid, decorated with large reflexed scales, about 10 X 1-2 cm.
Type collected by Prof. J. R. Watson on the ground in a high ham-
mock, probably growing from buried wood, at Gainesville, Fla., Dec. 9, 1942
(F19628). Not seen elsewhere. Suggesting Gymnopilus when looked at
from above. In texture it resembles M. illudens.
Omphalina australis sp. nov.
Pileo umbilicato, 1.7 cm. lato, glabro, avellaneo-isabellino, striato;
lamellis distantibus, albis; sporis ellipsoideis, 7-8 X 4-5 F; stipite glabro,
albo, 3 X 0.2 cm.
Pileus convex, umbilicate, gregarious, reaching 1.7 cm. broad; surface
dry, glabrous, hygrophanous, very pale avellaneous-isabelline with fuligin-
ous center, reddish-brown when dry, margin entire, striate; context very
thin, odorless; lamellae arcuate-decurrent, inserted, distant, medium broad,
white, entire; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, uniguttulate, 7-8 X 4-5 /;
cystidia none; stipe slightly tapering downward, cartilaginous, smooth,
glabrous, white, drying pale-reddish-brown, about 3 X 0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in leaf-mold in low frondose woods at
Gulf Hammock, Levy Co., Fla., Jan. 14, 1940 (F 19334). Not collected else-
where.
112 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Omphalina brunnescens sp. nov.
Pileo umbilicato, 1 cm. lato, pruinoso, isabellino; lamellis angustatis,
albis; sporis ellipsoideis, 6 X 4 ; stipite glabro, 2 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Pileus convex, umbilicate, not fully expanding, solitary, 1 cm. broad;
surface hygrophanous, smooth, pruinose, isabelline with dark center,
brownish when dry, margin incurved, even, entire; context very thin;
lamellae short-decurrent, arcuate, inserted, narrow, subdistant, white,
edges more or less eroded; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, about 6 X 4 p;
cystidia none; stipe subequal, smooth, glabrous, cartilaginous, pale-
yellowish drying reddish-brown, 2 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in soil under an oak at Gainesville,
Fla., July 6, 1938 (F 17451). Not collected elsewhere. Both cap and stem
turn brown in drying.
Omphalina fumosa sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 1 cm. lato, fumoso; lamellis avellaneis, sporis hyalinis,
6-7 X 3-4 I; stipite 2 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Pileus convex, papillate, not umbilicate, gregarious, 1 cm. broad; sur-
face smooth, finely pulverulent, uniformly fumosous, margin even, entire,
incurved when young; context rather thin, grayish, odorless, mawkish;
lamellae short-decurrent, arcuate, inserted, medium distant, avellaneous,
the edges sinuate; spores pip-shaped, pointed at one end, smooth, hyaline,
6-7 X 3-4 A; stipe slightly darker than the pileus, subequal, pruinose and
pallid at the apex, 2 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on the ground under a pine in Gaines-
ville, Fla., June 29, 1938 (F17283). A small gray species that is convex
and does not expand.
Omphalina mellea sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbilicato, 1 cm. lato, glabro, melleo; sporis ellipsoideis,
6 X 4 A; stipite melleo, 2 X 0.15 cm.
Pileus convex with small umbilicus, not expanding, gregarious, about
1 cm. broad; surface smooth, glabrous, pale melleous, isabelline at the
center, margin even, entire; context thin, pallid, odorless; lamellae short-
decurrent, pallid, medium distant, entire; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline,
uniguttulate, about 6 X 4 p; stipe equal, concolorous, smooth, glabrous,
about 2 X 0.15 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in soil under a pine at Gainesville,
Fla., June 30, 1938 (F 17301). A hemispheric, pale-yellowish species only
slightly umbilicate.
Omphalina subchrysophylla sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbilicato, 5-8 mm. lato, umbrino; lamellis angustatis,
citrinis, sporis globosis, 3j ; stipite palido, subglabro, 1-2 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, umbilicate, gregarious, 5-8 mm. broad;
surface rugose, sulcate, dry, glabrous, umbrinous, margin entire; context
membranous, pallid, slightly astringent; lamellae decurrent, narrow, dis-
tant, inserted, citrinous, the edges brownish and slightly eroded; spores
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
globose, smooth, hyaline, uninucleate, about 3 p; stipe twisted, smooth, sub-
glabrous, pallid, stuffed, equal above the enlarged, white-tomentose base,
1-2 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by West and Murrill on a dead oak branch in Planera
Hammock, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla., July 20, 1938
(F 18761). Resembling 0. chrysophylla (Fries) Murrill, but much smaller.
It is nearer to 0. subclavata (Peck) Murrill. Found several times in
Alachua and Marion Counties.
Omphalopsis pernivea sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 9 mm. lato, albo, striato; lamellis distantibus; sports
8-10 X 2.5 p; cystidiis 25 X 20 A; stipite albo, 1.5 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus hemispheric with a small umbo, not fully expanding, solitary,
9 mm. broad; surface dry, smooth, glabrous, striate, white, pellucid except
at the center, margin straight, entire; context membranous, white, odor-
less; lamellae decurrent, arcuate, distant, medium broad, inserted, white,
entire; spores narrowly oblong, smooth, hyaline, granular, tapering and
obliquely apiculate at the base, about 8-10 X 2.5 /; cystidia numerous,
broadly ellipsoid with an abrupt conic apex, smooth, hyaline, about
25 X 20 /; stipe subequal, smooth, glabrous, pellucid, 1.5 cm. long, scarcely
1 mm. thick.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in sand under palmettoes at Gaines-
ville, Fla., Sept. 30, 1939 (F 20001). A very dainty little mushroom, pure-
white throughout, with inflated cystidia and long, narrow spores.
Prunulus alachuanus sp. nov.
Pileo conico-expanso-revoluto, caespitoso, 2.5-3.5 cm. lato, glabro,
fumoso, grato; lamellis sinuatis, latis, murinis; sports ovoidels, levibus,
8-9 X 5-7 pA; stipite glabro, concolori, praeradicato, 6-10 X 0.5-1 cm.
Pileus conic to expanded, umbonate at times, cespitose, 2.5-3.5 cm.
broad; surface smooth, glabrous, blackish to dark-fumosus when young
and fresh, paler with age, margin even, entire, becoming revolute; con-
text thin, white, odorless, mild; lamellae inserted, sinuate, broad, ventri-
cose, medium crowded, entire, grayish-murinous; spores broadly ovoid,
smooth, hyaline, uniguttulate, 8-9 X 5-7 ,; stipe tapering upward, smooth,
glabrous, hollow, concolorous, long-radicate, about 6-10 X 0.5-1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in low frondose woods, growing from
decayed buried wood, in Sugarfoot Hammock, near Gainesville, Fla., Jan.
24, 1943 (F 21466). Found but once.
Prunulus subrubridiscus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 7 mm. lato, pallido, disco rubro-fulvo; lamellis
adnatis vel adnexis, latis, pallidis; sports ellipsoideis, 6 X 4 : stipite
glabro, pallide-flavo, 2.5-3 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus convex to plane, gregarious, about 7 mm. broad; surface smooth,
subglabrous, pallid, reddish-fulvous on the disk, margin even, entire;
context thin, white; lamellae adnate or adnexed, tapering behind, inserted,
broad, distant, pallid, entire; spores ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, about
114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
6 X 4/; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, pale-yellow, drying reddish-brown,
white at the base, 2.5-3 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a wet shaded bank at Magnesia
Springs, Alachua Co., Fla., July 15, 1938 (F 19322). Not found elsewhere.
Venenarius cylindrisporiformis sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, 4-6 cm. lato, albo, glabro, demum striato;
lamellis angustibus, albis, denticulatis; sports elongato-ovoideis, 10 X 6 p;
stipite albo, glabro, 7-15 X 0.7-1 cm.; volva alba, ampla, 4.5 X 2 cm.;
annulo albo, amplo.
Pileus convex, at length expanding, 4-6 cm. broad; surface white,
glabrous, margin entire, even, becoming striate with age; context thin,
white, odorless; lamellae adnexed with long decurrent, ridge, medium
distant, narrow, denticulate, white, brownish after drying; spores elon-
gate-ovoid, smooth, hyaline, about 10 X 6 p; cystidia none; stipe white,
glabrous, tapering upward, 7-15 X 0.7-1 cm.; volva large, with free limb,
white, about 4.5 cm. high and 2 cm. broad; annulus ample, white, fixed.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in a hammock near Green Cove
Springs, Clay Co., Fla., July 27, 1939 (F 16301). Also collected by Arnold
and West in deep sand south of Gold Head Branch State Park, May 12,
1939 (F18718), and by the author in sandy mixed woods in the same
park, May 27, 1939 (F17677). Similar in form to Amanitopsis volvata
but having a ring, and greatly resembling Amanita cylindrispora Beardslee
but lacking the cylindric spores of that species.
Venenarius parvus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-depresso, 3 cm. lato, albo; sports 10-13 X 3-4 ; stipite
albo, bulboso, 5 X 0.5 cm.; annulo magno, albo, persistent.
Pileus convex to somewhat depressed, solitary, 3 cm. broad; surface
slightly viscid, smooth, glabrous or nearly so, white, margin even, entire,
projecting 2-3 mm.; context thin, white, unchanging, odorless; lamellae
adnate without decurrent ridges, ventricose, inserted, a few forked, medium
distant, rather broad, pallid, the edges distinctly fringed; spores elongate,
smooth, hyaline, 10-13 X 3-4 p; stipe equal and 5 X 0.5 cm. above the
bulb, white, pruinose at the apex, floccose below, somewhat discolored
where handled; bulb subglobose, large, white, not radicate; annulus 5 mm.
from the apex, large, white, membranous, fixed, not striate, hanging like
a wet skirt.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under an oak in Gainesville, Fla.,
June 21, 1938 (F17404). A small, white species with cylindric spores,
reminding one of V. vernus. Also collected by West and Murrill under
hardwood trees in Planera Hammock, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville,
August 2, 1938 (F 17405).
Venenarius pseudovernus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, 4-6 cm. lato, glabro, albo vel disco cremeo;
lamellis adnexis, confertis, angustatis, albis; sporis ellipsoideis,
8-10 X 6-7 /; stipite albo, bulboso, eradicate, 8-12 X 1-1.5 cm.; bulbo
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
4 X 3-4 cm.; volva lobata vel lacerata; annulo amplo, persistent, albo.
Hymenophore pure-white throughout, or with cream disk; pileus convex
to expanded, 4-6 cm. broad; surface smooth, glabrous, rarely with volval
patches, margin even, entire; context odorless; lamellae adnexed, inserted,
close, narrow, entire, brown when dry; spores broadly ellipsoid, about
8-10 X 6-7 ,; stipe tapering upward, floccose, at times very rough,
8-12 X 1-1.5 cm.; bulb large, ovoid, not radicate, about 4 X 3-4 cm.; volva
limb free, lobed or lacerate; annulus very large, fixed 1 cm. from apex,
persistent.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under an oak at Gainesville, Fla.,
May 29, 1938 (F 16413). Also collected by the author under oak in the
vicinity on June 15, 1938 (F 16466). Although the pileus in this latter
collection had a cream disk I believe it is not distinct. On June 30, 1938,
Mr. West collected typical white specimens under oak in Sugarfoot, near
Gainesville (F 17410). On Oct. 3, 1943, I collected specimens in the same
locality with a cream disk (F 21531). The spores of V. vernus are globose.
Unless one examines the spores, it is easy to confuse the two species.
Venenarius Westii sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 7-9 cm. lato, rubro-brunneo, anisato; sporis subel-
lipsoideis, 9-11 X 6-7 /; stipite concolori, valde bulboso, 7-9 X 1.5 cm.,
annulo magno.
Pileus convex, not fully expanding, gregarious, 7-9 cm. broad; surface
dry, uniformly pale reddish-brown, decorated with large, floccose, con-
colorous scales, which are more abundant and more erect on the disk;
margin undulate, roughly squamulose, thick, not striate; context thick,
white, reddish-tinted where cut, sweet and nutty, with a slight odor of
anise; lamellae adnate, breaking away from the stipe, medium distant,
inserted, broad but not ventricose, pale grayish-white, reddish-brown
when dry, the edges very thick and finely fringed but not eroded; spores
oblong-subellipsoid with one end smaller, smooth, hyaline, granular, about
9-11 X 6-7 I; stipe equal above the bulb, pruinose and striate at the
paler apex, shaggy and concolorous below, 7-9 X 1.5 cm.; bulb ovoid, con-
colorous, 3 cm. thick, slightly eradicate, volva limb fragile, carried aloft;
annulus apical, very large, membranous, skirt-like, striate, fixed, per-
sistent, pale reddish-brown.
Type collected by Erdman West under Quercus geminata Small at
Newnan's Lake, near Gainesville, Fla., July 7, 1938 (F17466). A very
striking pale-chocolate-colored species with spores resembling those of
Amanita Atkinsoniano Coker. No trace of chloride-of-lime odor was
present but a slight fragrance as of anise. The enormous bulb banishes
at once all thought of V. rubens and its relatives.
Eccilia floridana sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbilicato, 1-2 cm. lato, avellaneo, farinaceo; lamellis
distantibus, sporis angulatis, 8-9 X 5-6 P; stipite albido, 1 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus convex, deeply umbilicate, gregarious, 1-2 cm. broad; surface
hygrophanous, subglabrous, smooth, uniformly avellaneous, margin even,
entire, incurved when young; context thin, pallid, odor and taste strongly
116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
farinaceous; lamellae decurrent, distant, inserted, triangular, entire, pallid
to dull-pink; spores angular, apiculate, uniguttulate, pink, about
8-9 X 5-6 1; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, slightly fibrillose, pallid,
about 1 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on bare, moist soil under palms in
Gainesville, Fla., July 17, 1938 (F 17887). A small, convex, avellaneous
species with decidedly farinaceous odor and taste. It is related to E.
parvula Murrill.
Entoloma albidiforme sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-depresso, umbonato, 4.5 cm. lato, subavellaneo; sports
angulatis, 10 X 7 p; stipite albo, 5-6 X 0.4-0.8 cm.
Pileus convex to slightly depressed with a small but distinct umbo,
gregarious, 4.5 cm. broad; surface avellaneous with a slight rosy tint,
hygrophanous, shining and nearly white in drying, glabrous, marked with
a few scattered radiating whitish ridges; margin even, undulate to slightly
lobed; context very thin, pallid, odorless, mild; lamellae sinuate, very
broad behind, distant, entire, pallid to dull-pink, the shorter ones much
narrower; spores very angular, uniguttulate, pink, about 10 X 7 /; stipe
strongly tapering upward, pruinose to subglabrous, grooved, pearly-white,
5-6 X 0.4-0.8 cm.
Type collected by West and Murrill on mossy ground under hardwood
trees in Planera Hammock, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla.,
August 2, 1938 (F 17391). A neat, mammillate species that is opaque when
fresh but becomes shining and almost white soon after being placed in
the drying oven.
Entoloma floridanum sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 5-7 cm. lato, avellaneo; odore et sapore valde
farinacels; lamellis sinuatis, latis, albis; sports angulatis, roses, 8.5-11 p;
stipite albo, 4-6 X 1-2 cm.
Pileus convex to plane, gregarious, 5-7 cm. broad; surface smooth,
glabrous, shining when dry, uniformly avellaneous, margin even, entire;
context firm, white, unchanging, odor and taste strongly farinaceous;
lamellae sinuate, broad, not crowded, 3-4 times inserted, entire, white
to pink; spores apiculate, angular, pink, 8.5-11 ; stipe subequal, smooth,
glabrous, milk-white, stuffed, 4-6 X 1-2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in soil beneath a laurel oak at Gaines-
ville, Fla., Nov. 22, 1932 (F10012). Found abundant in one spot. Near E.
griseum, 'but stipe pure white; also near E. Grayanum, but stipe much
too short and thick. A single specimen was found on Sept. 30, 1932,
with the margin deeply split in several places ( 10018). Rather common
in Alachua County.
Entoloma muriniforme sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, umbonato, 2.5 cm. lato, rimoso, avellaneo,
nigro-squamuloso; lamellis sinuatis, latis, pallidis; sports angulatis,
7 X 5 p; stipite glabro, albo, 2.5 X 0.3 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded-umbonate, solitary, 2.5 cm. broad; surface
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
dry, rimose, avellaneous with blackish pointed scales, darker on the
umbo, margin concolorous; context thin, dirty-pallid; lamellae sinuate,
inserted, broad, medium distant, pallid to pinkish, finely denticulate;
spores ellipsoid in outline, decidedly angular, uniguttulate, about 7 X 5 ";
cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, white, 2.5 X 0.3 cm.
Type collected by West & Murrill on the ground in Kelley's Hammock,
10 mi. northwest of Gainesville, Fla., July 19, 1938 (F 18219). Not found
elsewhere. Suggesting E. murinum Pk. but quite distinct.
Entoloma subtenuipes sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, subumbonato, 2-3 cm. lato, subsquamuloso,
fumoso-avellaneo, farinaceo; lamellis sinuatis, latis; sports angulatis,
8 X 6A; stipite glabro, 4-6 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded with small umbo, gregarious, 2-3 cm.
broad; surface densely subsquamulose, fumose-avellaneous, fumose on
the umbo, margin entire, concolorous, fertile; context thin, odorless,
taste very farinaceous; lamellae sinuate, broad, moderately close, inserted,
edges undulate and pallid; spores pink, decidedly angular, 1-guttulate,
about 8 X 6 /; cystidia none; stipe slightly tapering upward, fleshy,
smooth, glabrous, concolorous or paler, 4-6 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Type collected by Erdman West on a rotten hardwood stump in Planera
Hammock, eleven miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla., Jan. 5, 1939
(F 15519). Suggesting Entoloma tenuipes Murr., described from Lake
Placid, N. Y., and also certain species of Nolanea.
Leptoniella alachuana sp. nov.
Pileo subdepresso, 1.5 cm. lato, violaceo-brunneo; lamellis adnatis,
albis, latis; sporis angulatis, 9 X 6 p; stipite violaceo vel albido, com-
presso, 3.5-4 X 0.3-0.5 cm.
Pileus slightly depressed, 1.5 cm. broad; surface dry, smooth, violet-
brown, shining when fresh, densely squamulose under a lens, margin
incurved, even, undulate, concolorous; context very thin, white, odorless;
lamellae adnate or slightly sinuate, broad, rather distant, inserted, white
to pale-rose, edges slightly uneven; spores pink, decidedly angular, 1-gut-
tulate, about 9 X 6 t; stipe slightly tapering upward, hollow, flattened,
furfuraceous at the apex, violet above, paler violet or whitish below with
the appearance of asbestos, 3.5-4 X 0.3-0.5 cm.
Type collected by R. C. Hindery and E. West in humus under oaks in
Sugarfoot Hammock, near Gainesville, Fla., Sept. 11, 1942 (F19579).
Leptoniella floridana sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbilicato, umbrino, 2-2.5 cm. lato; lamellis subdis-
tantibus, sporis angulatis, 7-9 X 5-6 p; stipite glabro, pallido, 3-4 X 0.1-0.2
cm.
Pileus convex, umbilicate, gregarious or cespitose, 2-2.5 cm. broad;
surface dry, umbrinous, fuliginous in the center, finely hispid, often
radiate-rimose, margin entire; context thin, concolorous, mild, odorless;
lamellae adnate or sinuate with decurrent tooth, subdistant, inserted,
118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
rather broad, pallid to pale pink with brown edges; spores broadly
ellipsoid in outline, decidedly angular, apiculate, uninucleate, pale pink,
7-9 X 5-6 g; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, pallid, whitish-
tomentose at the base, about 3-4 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a shaded lawn in Gainesville,
Fla., July 17, 1938 (F 17892). Suggesting L. abnormis (Peck) Murrill,
but narrowly umbilicate and having a longer stipe.
Nolanea floridana sp. nov.
Pileo conico, umbrino, striato, 1 cm. lato; sports angulatis, 6-8 p;
stipite glabro, pallido, 2 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus conic, umbonate, not expanding, gregarious, about 1 cm. broad;
surface dry, furfuraceous, umbrinous, subfuliginous on the umbo, margin
straight, entire, striate; context thin, pallid, odorless, mild; lamellae
free or slightly adnexed, broad, ventricose, inserted, subdistant, pallid
to pale pink, the edges entire, concolorous; spores globose to broadly
ellipsoid in outline, decidedly angular, uninucleate, apiculate, pink, 6-8p
in diameter; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, pallid, about
2 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a shaded lawn in Gainesville,
Fla., July 17, 1938 (F 17879). A small, conic, umbrinous species found
in the grass under hardwood trees.
Nolanea strobilomyces sp. nov.
Pileo conico-convexo, 5-7 mm. lato, fuliginoso, floccoso; lamellis ad-
nexis, latis, integris; sporis 4-5-angulatis, 6 /; stipite concoloro, floccoso,
1.5 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus conic to hemispheric, gregarious, 5-7 mm. broad; surface fuligi-
nous, shaggy, margin entire, straight; context very thin, brown; lamellae
adnexed, inserted, broad, ventricose, medium distant, entire, gray to
reddish-brown; spores (appear) 4-5-angled, opaque, dark-roseous, about
6 A; cystidia none; stipe equal, concolorous, shaggy, about 1.5 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by W, A. Murrill on a dead log in Kelley's Hammock,
10 mi. northwest of Gainesville, Fla., Aug. 10, 1938 (F16520). A very
striking little species strongly suggesting Strobilomyces. The spores sug-
gest dark, crudely-cut amethysts. It is novelties like these that repay
the mycologist for overtime.
Pluteus alachuanus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 3-3.5 cm. lato, umbrino, reticulato; lamellis con-
fertis, sporis globosis, 5 p; stipite albo, striato, 5 X 0.3-0.4 cm.
Pileus convex to plane, not umbonate, gregarious, 3-3.5 cm. broad;
surface hygrophanous, glabrous, pale-umbrinous, fuliginous on the disk,
ornamented with serpentine reticulate fuliginous lines; margin straight,
even, entire, fertile; context very thin, white, mild, odorless; lamellae
free, ventricose, broad, rather close, inserted, entire, pallid to pink; spores
globose, smooth, pink, 1-guttulate, about 5 /; stipe tapering upward,
whitish, shining, striate, glabrous above, tomentose below, 5 X 0.3-0.4 cm.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a rotten sweet-gum log in a low
hammock at Magnesia Springs, Fla., Feb. 11, 1939 (F 18713). The re-
ticulate cap suggests P. admirabilis Peck, but the spores are uniformly
globose. It is also near P. phlebophorus (Ditm.) Fr. Collected later on
a decayed palmetto at Juniper Springs.
Pluteus australis sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, 2 cm. lato, viscido, glabro, cervino; lamellis
liberis, confertis, albis; sporis ellipsoideis, 5 X 3 I; cystidiis trifidis,
45 X 13 &; stipite albo, glabro, 7 X 0.3 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded, solitary, 2 cm. broad; surface slimy-
viscid, smooth, glabrous, dark fawn-colored, darker on the disk, margin
even, entire; context thin, white; lamellae free, inserted, narrow, crowded,
white to pink; spores ellipsoid, smooth, uniguttulate, about 5 X 3 1;
cystidia abundant, hyaline, conic with trifid apex, projecting about
45 X 13 p; stipe equal, dry, smooth, glabrous, white, 7 X 0.3 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in humus in a high hammock at
Gainesville, Fla., Oct. 24, 1942 (F19140). Resembling P. cervinus but
smaller and slenderer. Found but once.
Pluteus subgriseibrunneus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbonato, 5 cm. lato, griseo, tomentuloso, striatulato;
sporis subglobosis, 6-7 X 5-6 /; stipite albo, 6-7 cm. long.
Pileus convex, umbonate, solitary, 5 cm. broad; surface dry, finely
tomentose, uniformly gray, with blackish erect fibrils, margin faintly
striate, entire; context thin, white; lamellae free, broad, crowded, entire,
pallid to pink; spores subglobose, smooth, uniguttulate, pink, 6-7 X 5-6 A;
cystidia bottle-shaped, hyaline; stipe tapering upward, pulverulent to
subglabrous, white, about 6-7 cm. long.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a dead log in woods a few miles
west of Gainesville, Fla., Aug. 16, 1937 (F 16067). A beautiful species
suggesting P. griseibrunneus, but the spores are decidedly different.
Galerula melleiceps sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, umbonato, 5-10 mm. lato, pulverulento, striato,
mnelleo; lamellis adnatis, latis, pallidis; sports ovoideis, 6-7 X 4-5 A;
stipite glabro, melleo, 1.5 X 0.05 cm.
Pileus convex to plane, umbonate, gregarious, 5-10 mm. broad; surface
dry, pulverulent, striate, honey-yellow, margin straight, entire or slightly
lobed; context very thin, pallid; lamellae adnate, inserted, broad, sub-
distant, dirty-pallid, entire; spores ovoid, smooth, uniguttulate, pale-
isabelline, 6-7 X 4-5 p; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, pale-
melleous, about 1.5 X 0.05 cm.
Type collected on a dead frondose log at Buzzards' Roost, 8 mi. west
of Gainesville, Fla., Sept. 29, 1938 (F15910). Not seen elsewhere.
Galerula parvuliformis sp. nov.
Pileo conico-plano, umbonato, 1.3 cm. lato, rosei-isabellino, striato;
120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
lamellis adnexis, ventricosis; sporis ovoideis, levibus, 8-11 X 5-7 4; stipite
albo, floccoso, 2 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus conic to plane with prominent conic umbo, 1.3 cm. broad;
surface dry, floccose-scaly, finely striate to the umbo, pale rosy-isabelline,
dark-isabelline at the center, margin entire, straight, appressed when
young; context very thin, pallid; lamellae adnexed, rounded behind, ven-
tricose, inserted, medium distant, entire, soon pale-isabelline; spores ovoid,
smooth, uniguttulate, Isabelline, very variable in size, 8-11 X 5-7 I; stipe
white, finely floccose, equal, 2 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in soil under an oak at Gainesville,
Fla., June 4, 1938 (F 19882). Not found elsewhere.
Gymnopilus fulviconicus sp. nov.
Pileo conico, 3 cm. lato, glabro, subfulvo, disco fulvo; lamellis adnatis,
latis, integris; sporis ovoideis, levibus, 7 X 4 j; stipite glabro, subcon-
coloro, 5 X 0.7 cm.
Pileus conic, not fully expanding, solitary, about 3 cm. broad; surface
smooth, glabrous, fulvous on the disk, paler toward the margin, which is
even, entire, incurved when dry; context thin, pallid, odorless, mild;
lamellae adnate with decurrent tooth, inserted, broad, medium distant,
entire, ferruginous at maturity; spores ovoid, smooth, pale-yellowish,
about 7 X 4 p; cystidia none; stipe subequal, smooth, glabrous, pale-
yellowish above, fulvous below, about 5 X 0.7 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on the ground in beech woods near
Santa F6, Alachua Co., Fla., Dec. 13, 1939 (F 18110). Not known from
elsewhere. On drying the center becomes a fulvous cone. Scattered over
the sides of the gills are globose fulvous bodies 15 / or more in diameter.
Hebeloma australe sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, 4-5 cm. lato, glabro, subviscido, rosel-isa-
bellino, amaro; lamellis adnexis, latis, confertis, denticulatis; sporis
ovoideis, levis, pallidis, 10-12 X 5-6 p; stipe pallido, floccoso, bulboso,
4-5 X 0.6-0.8 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded, often slightly elevated at the center,
gregarious, 4-5 cm. broad; surface smooth, glabrous, slightly viscid, pale
rosy-isabelline, margin even, entire, inflexed on drying; context thin,
white, odorless, bitter; lamellae adnexed, inserted, crowded, broad, ven-
tricose, dull-brown when mature and dry with white-fringed edges;
spores ovoid, smooth, uniguttulate, inequilateral, 10-12 X 5-6 p; cystidia
none; stipe tapering downward to the small bulb, floccose, dirty-white,
4-5 X 0.6-0.8 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under live-oak west of Newnan's Lake,
near Gainesville, Fla., Dec. 28, 1942 (F 21535). Also collected by Dr. G. F.
Weber at the same place. The bitter taste is not always present.
Hebeloma longisporum sp. nov.
Pileo conico-convexo, 3 cm. lato, viscido, glabro, subisabellino, subgrato;
lamellis sinuatis, latis; sporis ovoideis, levibus, 14 X 7 L; stipite glabro,
viscido, pallido, 5-6 X 0.5-0.7 cm.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI 121
Pileus conic to broadly convex, 3 cm. broad; surface viscid, smooth,
glabrous, avellaneous-isabelline, dark-isabelline on the disk, margin even,
entire; context very thin except at the center, pallid, odorless, mild to
slightly mawkish; lamellae sinuate, inserted, broad, ventricose, medium
distant, entire, pallid when young; spores elongate, pipshaped, smooth,
uniguttulate, about 14 X 7/ ; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, viscid, pallid,
shining, stuffed, 5-6 X 0.5-0.7 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in mixed woods very near Gainesville,
Fla., Oct. 29, 1938 (F19801). Not found elsewhere.
Hebeloma subfastible sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 2.5-4 cm. lato, roseo-isabellino; lamellis latis,
pallidis; sports subfusiformibus, glabris, ochraceo-ferruginels, 11-13 X
5-6 I; stipite albo, 3 X 0.5-1 cm.
Pileus convex to plane, not at all umbonate, gregarious, 2.5-4 cm.
broad; surface smooth, moist, glabrous, uniformly rosy-isabelline, margin
even, entire; context thin, white; lamellae sinuate, broad, subcrowded,
pallid to subferruginous, edges white, denticulate; spores smooth, sub-
fusiform, uniguttulate, ochraceous-ferruginous, 11-13 X 5-6 j; stipe equal,
short, smooth, glabrous, white, about 3 X 0.5-1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a lawn under oaks at Gainesville,
Fla., Jan. 8, 1938 (F 16041). Strongly suggesting H. crustuliniforme, only
smaller and uniformly rosy-isabelline. The spores are entirely different,
being subfusiform instead of gibbous. No characteristic odor was noticed.
Common about Gainesville on lawns and in woods.
Inocybe hebelomoides sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, umbonato, 3.5 cm. lato, viscido, stramineo;
sports ovoidels, 8 X 5 A, cystidiis 40 X 15 p; stipite albo, 5 X 0.5-0.6 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, umbonate, gregarious, 3.5 cm. broad; sur-
face viscid, smooth, shining, glabrous, stramineous, margin even, entire;
context white, unchanging, without characteristic odor or taste; lamellae
adnexed with decurrent tooth, ventricose, medium broad and medium
distant, inserted, pallid to discolored, edges fimbriate; spores ovoid, smooth,
ferruginous, 1-guttulate, about 8 X 5 p; cystidia bottle-shaped, hyaline,
blunt and crested at the tip, projecting about 40 X 15 /; stipe equal,
smooth, shining, glabrous, white, furfuraceous at the apex, 5 X 0.5-0.6 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under hardwoods in a high hammock
at Gainesville, Fla., Oct. 17, 1938 (F 18365). Having the usual appearance
of Hebeloma with cystidia like those of Inocybe and spores resembling
those of Cortiarius. They are umbrinous in mass and ferruginous under
the microscope.
Inocybe minutispora sp. nov.
Pileo conico-subexpanso, 2-2.5 cm. lato, subviscido, avellaneo-isabellino,
innato-fibrilloso; lamellis adnexis, confertis; sports angulatis, tuber-
culatis, 5-6 X 3-4 A; cystidiis ventricosis, tuberculatis, projectentibus
30 X 15 u; stipite glabro, albo, bulboso, 3-5 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
122 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Pileus conic to convex, at length subexpanded, gregarious, 2-2.5 cm.
broad; surface somewhat viscid, silky-shining, avellaneous-isabelline, in-
nate-fibrillose, margin entire, finely striate when dry; context thin, white;
lamellae adnexed with decurrent tooth, inserted, narrow, crowded, fulvous
at maturity; spores small, angular-tuberculate, irregular, pale, opaque,
about 5-6 X 3-4 /; cystidia abundant, ventricose with tubercular tip,
hyaline, projecting about 30 X 15 /; stipe smooth, glabrous, milk-white,
subequal above the nonmarginate bulb, about 3-5 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in sandy, shaded soil in Kelley's
Hammock, ten miles northwest of Gainesville, Fla., July 19, 1938
(F 18552). Not found elsewhere.
Inocybe multispora sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, umbonato, gregaro, 1-2 cm. lato, squamuloso, isabellino
ad fulvo, grato; lamellis adnatis, latis, fimbriatis; sports ellipsoidels,
levibus, pallidis, 10-13 X 4-6 /; stipite pallido, fibrilloso, 1.5-3 X 0.2-0.4 cm.
Pileus convex with prominent conic umbo, gregarious, 1-2 cm. broad;
surface dry, coarsely squamulose, pale-isabelline to fulvous, margin even,
entire, inflexed on drying; context thin, sweet; lamellae broadly adnate,
inserted, broad, medium distant, white-fimbriate; spores oblong-ellipsoid,
smooth, pale, 1-2-guttulate, very abundant, 10-13 X 4-6 ; cystidia none;
stipe subequal above the small immarginate bulb, fibrillose, pallid,
1.5-3 X 0.2-0.4 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under a palm in Gainesville, Fla.,
June 8, 1938 (F 17380). Also collected by the author in the vicinity during
July and October of the same year, both in the open and in mixed woods.
Inocybe sublongipes sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-plano, 1.5-2.2 cm. lato, subisabellino, innato-fibrilloso,
grato; lamellis adnatis, latis, albis, fimbriatis; sporis oblongo-ovoideis,
levibus, 11-13 X 5-6 p; stipite pallido, fibrilloso, 5-6 X 0.2-0.4 cm.
Pileus convex, plane in age, slightly umbonate, scattered to gregarious,
1.5-2.2 cm. broad; surface dry, uniformly pale-isabelline, shining, finely
innately radiately floccose or tomentose, margin incurved when young,
even, entire; context very thin, white to discolored, odorless, mild;
lamellae adnate, broad, ventricose, crowded, white to isabelline, white-
fimbriate; spores oblong-ovoid, smooth, 1-guttulate, isabelline, 11-13 X
5-6 /; cystidia none; stipe subequal, grayish, fibrillose, 5-6 X 0.2-0.4 cm.;
veil fibrillose, delicate, white, evanescent.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under elbow bushes at the edge of a
flatwoods pond east of Gainesville, Fla., Aug. 27, 1943 (F 22467). In the
group with I. subdecurrens but paler and having a longer stem, suggest-
ing that of I. longipes; which, however, has cystidia. The hymenophores
were distributed for several yards along the edge of the pond.
Inocybe taedophila sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-depresso, gregario, 3-4.5 cm. lato, tomentoso, fulvo ad
umbrino, grato; lamellis adnatis, latis, ochraceis; sporis oblongis, levibus;
10-12 X 3-4 p; stipite pallido, 2.5-3 X 0.5-1 cm.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
Pileus convex to depressed, gregarious, 3-4.5 cm. broad; surface dry,
tomentose, fulvous or umbrinous, margin entire, even or slightly striate;
context thin, pallid, odorless, mild; lamellae inserted, squarely adnate or
slightly sinuate, broad, rather close, entire, ochraceous-isabelline to
ochraceous-fulvous; spores oblong, smooth, very pale yellowish under
microscope, ochraceous-fulvous in mass, 10-12 X 3-4 ; cystidia none;
stipe subequal, pallid, often rough and striate, slightly enlarged at base,
2.5-3 X 0.5-1 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill under loblolly pines northwest of
Gainesville, Fla., Jan. 13, 1940 (F 22484). Also collected in the same
locality Jan. 10, 1940 (F 22505)., and Jan. 10, 1941 (F 22516). On Jan.
14, 1940, it was collected in dry woods of loblolly pine and turkey oak
near Archer, in Alachua Co., Fla. (F 22507). These last specimens were
bay to chestnut with age. The species is evidently adapted to the dry
soil beneath Pinus Taeda and will doubtless be found inder longleaf pine.
It is in the general group with I. subdeourrens but its spores are unusually
slender.
Inocybe umbrinescens sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-expanso, umbonato, 1-2 cm. lato, subfulvo, fibrilloso;
lamellis adnexis, pallidis; sports nodulosis, 10-12 X 9 p; cystidlis ventri-
cosis, hyalinis; stipite pallido ad nigro, pruinoso, 2-2.5 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Pileus convex to expanded, umbonate, gregarious, 1-2 cm. broad; sur-
face dry, densely fibrillose, becoming rimose, subfulvous, fulvous at the
center, umbrinous on drying, margin entire, incurved when dry; context
thin, pallid to brown; lamellae adnexed, inserted, rather broad, medium
close, entire, pallid to brown; spores angular-nodulose, subglobose to
broadly ellipsoid in outline, pale, with nodules short and obtuse, about
10-12 x 9 p; cystidia abundant, hyaline, shaped like milk bottles but
with tapering base, projecting about 30 /; stipe pallid to black, smooth,
pruinose, equal, without conspicuous bulb, about 2-2.5 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a shaded lawn in Gainesville, Fla.,
Sept. 18, 1938 (P 18707). Collected but once. The change in color on
drying is very characteristic.
Inocybe Weberi sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, 3 cm. lato, innato-fibrilloso, melleo; lamellis
sinuatis, adnexis, melleis, fimbriatis; sports ovoideis, levibus, 8-9 X 5 p;
stipite pallido, bulboso, 5-6 X 0.5 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded, solitary, 3 cm. broad; surface dry, in-
nate-fibrillose, melleous, the disk darker, margin even, entire; context
thin, pale-yellowish, odorless, mild to mawkish; lamellae sinuate-adnexed,
medium broad, medium distant, inserted, melleous, white-fimbriate; spores
ovoid, smooth, about 8-9 X 5 p; stipe subequal above the nonmarginate
bulb, smooth, lutescent, pallid, reddish-brown when dry, 5-6 X 0.5 cm.
Type collected by Dr. G. F. Weber on the ground in mixed woods at
Hawthorn, Fla., Feb. 16, 1941 (F17317). Not found elsewhere. Consider-
ably darker when dry.
124 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Mycena bambusicola sp. nov.
Pileo conico, ad 1 cm. lato, striato, squamuloso, albo, revoluto; lamellis
adnexis, confertis, pallidis; sporis ellipsoideis, levibus, fulvis, 7-8 X 5 p;
stipite pallido, glabro, 4-5 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Pileus conic to campanulate, gregarious, to 1 cm. broad in age; surface
slightly viscid, striate, finely squamulose, white, dull-brownish when dry,
margin entire, straight, revolute in age; context very thin, putrescent;
lamellae adnexed, crowded, narrow, entire, pallid to brownish,* partially
dissolving at maturity; spores ellipsoid, smooth, opaque, dark-fulvous,
about 7-8 X 5 ; stipe enlarged downward, hollow, pallid, slightly darker
on drying, smooth, glabrous, 4-5 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on dead bambo leaves under bamboo
at Gainesville, Fla., June 22, 1938 (F 17343). Not seen elsewhere. At first
sight I thought it was a species of Coprinus but the spores turned out to
be more like those of some species of Cortinarius.
Naucoria citrinipes sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, 1 cm. lato, pruinoso, fumoso-avellaneo;
lamellis sinuatis, confertis, fimbriatis; sporis ovoideis, levibus, 6-7 X 4-5 ;
stipite citrino, strato, 2 X 0.1 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded, solitary, 1 cm. broad; surface dry,
smooth, finely pruinose, uniformly fumosous-avellaneous, margin even,
entire, deflexed; context very thin, pallid; lamellae slightly sinuate, in-
serted, narrow, close, fimbriate, pallid to isabelline; spores ovoid, smooth,
mostly uniguttulate, pale yellowish-brown, 6-7 X 4-5 p; cystidia none; stipe
subequal, shining, citrinous, pruinose, striate, whitish-mycelioid at the
base, about 2 X 0.1 cm.
Type collected by West and Murrill on decayed frondose wood in
Kelley's Hammock, 10 mi. northwest of Gainesville, Fla., Aug. 3, 1938
(F 15450). Not seen elsewhere.
Naucoria melleipes sp. nov.
Pileo convexo-subexpanso, 3 cm. lato, fulvo, grato; lamellis sinuatis,
confertis, melleis; sporis ellipsoideis, punctatis, 7 X 4 p; stipite fibrilloso,
melleo, 5 X 0.4 cm.
Pileus convex to subexpanded with small umbo, solitary, 3 cm. broad;
surface moist, opaque, fulvous, darker and much wrinkled on drying,
margin incurved, even, entire; context very thin, yellowish, odorless,
mild; lamellae sinuate, inserted, close, medium broad, melleous, denticu-
late; spores ellipsoid, slightly roughened, uniguttulate, deep-ferruginous,
about 7 X 4 ; cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, fibrillose, melleous,
5 X 0.4 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in moss on a ditch bank in Gaines-
ville, Fla., Jan. 1, 1940 (F19089). Not seen elsewhere. In my notes I
find "Near Flammula spumosa but gills sinuate."
Tubaria fuscifolia sp. nov.
Pileo conico-convexo, 1-2 cm. lato, rosei-isabellino, striato, subgrato;
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
lamellis subdecurrentibus, latis, distantibus; sports subovoideis, levibus,
pallidis, 7-8 X 4-5 I; stipite rosei-isabellino, 2-3 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Pileus conic to convex, not fully expanded, gregarious, 1-2 cm. broad;
surface hygrophanous, pubescent, rosy-isabelline, margin straight, striate,
entire to splitting; context almost membranous, odorless, mild to slightly
unpleasant; lamellae arcuate, adnate to short-decurrent, inserted, broad,
distant, fimbriate, pale-rosy-isabelline when young, fuscous with age or
on drying; spores subovoid, smooth, 1-2-guttulate, very pale under the
microscope but bright-fulvous in mass, 7-8 X 4-5 p; cystidia none; stipe
equal, smooth, concolorous, whitish-pubescent, about 2-3 X 0.1-0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in moist sandy soil in partial shade
near frondose trees at Gainesville, Fla., Jan. 17, 1943 (F19619). The
dark gills distinguish it at once from T. subcrenulata Murr. Only one
collection has been made to date but it contains many hymenophores.
Atylospora alachuana sp. nov.
Pileo subexpanso, 2.5 cm. lato, glabro, isabellino, striato; lamellis
adnatis, latis, fimbriatis; sports ellipsoideis, levibus, 8-9 X 4.5-5 /; stipite
glabro, pallido, 7 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Pileus subexpanded, solitary, 2.5 cm. broad; surface dry, glabrous,
uniformly pale-isabelline, margin entire, slightly striate, deflexed on
drying; context very thin, pallid; lamellae adnate, plane, inserted, medium
distant, broad, dark-brown at maturity with white, fimbriate edges;
spores ellipsoid, smooth, opaque, deep purplish-brown, about 8-9 X 4.5-5 I;
cystidia none; stipe equal, smooth, glabrous, pallid, pale-brownish below
when dry, about 7 X 0.2-0.3 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on a shaded mossy bank in frondose
woods at Gainesville, Fla., Dec. 20, 1942 (F 19895). Not found elsewhere.
Suggesting A. australis Murr., described from New Orleans, but not at
all umbonate and having adnate gills.
Coprinus capillaripes sp. nov.
Pileo conico-convexo, gregario, 4 X 4 mm., griseo, squamuloso, sulcato;
sports ellipsoideis, 10-11 X 7-8 A; stipite niveo, 3 cm. long.
Pileus conic to broadly convex, gregarious, 4 X 4 mm.; surface gray,
squamulose, sulcate, margin revolute; context very thin, pallid; lamellae
free, rather distant, narrow, soon blackening; spores broadly ellipsoid,
smooth, dark-brown, apiculate, 10-11 X 7-8 t; stipe hairlike, smooth,
glabrous, equal, snow-white, about 3 cm. long; annulus wanting.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in an open grassy lawn at Gainesville,
Fla., July 26, 1939 (F 19975). A very dainty little species, found but once.
Coprinus floridanus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, gregario, 1.5-3 cm. lato, griseo aut isabellino, sulcato;
lamellis adnexis, sports ellipsoideis, 10 X 5 p; stipite subhyalino,
4 X 0.2 cm.
Pileus broadly convex, gregarious, 1.5-3 cm. broad; surface gray or
avellaneous-isabelline, isabelline on the disk, distinctly radiately sulcate,
126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
margin entire; context very thin, white, odorless; lamellae adnexed,
medium broad, medium close, inserted, entire, gray when first seen, soon
blackening; spores ellipsoid, smooth, black, about 10 X 5 /; cystidia none;
stipe subequal, enlarged at the very base, smooth, glabrous, subhyaline,
about 4 X 0.2 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill about an old stump in partial shade
at Gainesville, Fla., May 28, 1938 (F 16218). Found several times since in
the vicinity.
Coprinus subdomesticus sp. nov.
Pileo convexo, 1.5-3 cm. lato, albo, squamuloso; lamellis adnexis, con-
fertis, pallidis; sporis ovoideis, glabris, 10-12 X 6-8 p; stipite albo, glabro,
1.5-3 X 0.3-0.4 cm.
Pileus convex, not expanding, scattered to somewhat gregarious, 1.5-3
cm. broad; surface white, shining, decorated with small white separable
scales, becoming gray and finely striate, margin incurved and somewhat
sulcate when young, becoming fimbriate or ragged; context thin, white,
with pleasant flavor; lamellae tapering at both ends, just touching or
free, 5 mm. broad at the middle, close, inserted, pallid to blackish, edges
white, entire; spores broadly ovoid, smooth, opaque, blackish, 10-12 X
6-8 ,; stipe slightly enlarged below, exannulate, smooth, glabrous, white,
base bulbous, immarginate, 1.5-3 X 0.3-0.4 cm.; universal veil breaking
into small fragments.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill in open sandy soil in dry oak-pine
woods near Gainesville, Fla., Mar. 15, 1940 (F 18529). Found but once.
U. domestius Fr. is larger, with brown disk and spores 14-16 X 7-8 &.
Psilocybe floridana sp. nov.
Pileo campanulato, 2.5 cm, glabro, melleo, amaro; lamellis adnatis,
confertis, erosis; sporis 5 X 4 ; stipite melleo, glabro, 4 X 0.5 cm.
Pileus campanulate to convex, not fully expanding, solitary, 2.5 cm.
broad; surface smooth, glabrous, hygrophanous, uniformly melleous with
an umbrinous tint, margin even, entire; context melleous, rather tough,
very bitter at once; lamellae adnate or emarginate, inserted, medium
broad, crowded, pallid with a melleous tint, eroded on the edges; spores
broadly ellipsoid, smooth, uniguttulate, purplish-brown, about 5 X 4 I;
stipe cartilaginous, flattened, equal, concolorous, smooth, glabrous,
4 X 0.5 cm.
Type collected by W. A. Murrill on an oak log in low hammock at
Juniper Springs, Marion Co., Fla., Oct. 13, 1940 (F19323). Not seen
elsewhere.
NEW FLORIDA FUNGI
NEW COMBINATIONS
For those using Saccardo the following species are recombined:
Atylospora alachuana =
Galerula melleiceps =
Galerula parvuliformis =
Geopetalum alachuanum =
Gymnopilus fulviconius =
Gymnopus amarus =
Gymnopus praemultifolius
Gymnopus subluxurians =
Leptoniella alachuana =
Leptoniella floridana
Melanoleuca subterreiformis =
Melanoleuca Watsonii=
Monadelphus Watsonii1
Mycena bambusicola =
Omphalina australis =
Omphalina brunnescens =
Omphalina fumosa
Omphalina mellea =
Omphalina subchrysophylla
Omphalopsis pernivea =
Prunulus alachuanus
Prunulus subrubridiscus =
Venenarius cylindrisporiformis =
Venenarius parvus =
Venenarius pseudovernus =
Venenarius Westii=
Psathyra alachuana
Galera melleiceps
Galera parvuliformis
Pleurotus alachuanus
Flammula fulviconia
Collybia amara
Collybia praemultifolia
Collybia subluxurians
Leptonia alachuana
Leptonia floridana
Tricholoma subterreifornme
Tricholoma Watsonli
Clitocybe Watsonii
Bolbitius bambusicola
Omphalia australis
Omphalia brunnescens
Omphalia fumosa
Omphalia mellea
Omphalia subchrysophylla
Omphalia pernivea
Mycena alachuana
Mycena subrnbridisca
Amanita cylindrisporiformis
Amanita parva
Amanita pseudoverna
Amanita Westil
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
THE BLIGHT DISEASE OF CYCAS REVOLUTA
GEORGE F. WEBER
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
A foliage disease of cycads, resulting in the usually rapid and
often complete destruction of the pinnae or leaflets of the leaves
in their early development, has for more than a decade been under
continuous observation in Florida, particularly at Gainesville. The
disease is common, and has been referred to by Bailey (1914) as
a blight. Search of the literature has revealed no other reference
containing a description, so that it seems advisable to make this
preliminary report even though no information can be given as
to the cause of the disease.
Of the numerous species of ornamental cycads grown in Florida,
only Cycas revoluta Thunb. and C. circinalis L. are known to be
affected by the blight. Both plants are members of the palm-like
Cycadaceae, a family of plants botanically located between the
cryptogams and the phanerogams. Cycas revoluta, probably of
Javanese origin and widely disseminated from China about 1737,
has the margins of the pinnae rolled under. It is the commonest
cycad in cultivation, and is grown generally in all parts of Florida,
although it is most frequently seen in the northern and western
parts of the state because it is more resistant to cold than any
of the other species. In the central and southern parts of the
state Cycas circinalis is probably as popular; it has flat leaflets,
and is a native of tropical Africa and southern Asia. The infor-
mation given here pertains exclusively to the blight disease as it
affects C. revoluta.
Diseased individuals of this plant have been found in Florida
as far north as Pensacola, Tallahassee, Live Oak, Lake City and
Jacksonville, and around the southern borders at Sarasota, Fort
Myers, Sebring, Okeechobee and Palm Beach. No authentic reports
have been found to show that the disease occurs outside the area
bounded by these records, although it may possibly accompany the
host plant in its distribution westward along the Gulf coast to
the Mexican border and along the Atlantic coast of Georgia and
South Carolina. The disease, which becomes year by year in-
creasingly severe in affected plants, greatly reduces the orna-
mental value of the cycad, and usually results in removal of the
diseased individuals from landscaped plantings because of their
unsightly appearance and eventual death.
130 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
The earliest symptoms of the disease appear on the newly
unrolled leaves, all of the 20 to 40 of which that are produced
each season develop at the same time. Slightly pale-green, sunken,
somewhat shrivelled marginal areas one to two millimeters in
depth and twice as long appear on the pinnae of the young leaves,
often when the leaves are less than one-fourth expanded, but more
often about the time they have attained full expansion. The central
point of each such area shows drying and bleaches to a tan color.
Some shrinkage of tissue occurs along the outer margin, and the
pinnae are frequently drawn up so that they curl or bend out of
the more or less flat plane characteristic of healthy pinnae. The
spots expand rapidly, and often involve the pinnae of the entire
leaf. Color change, curling and drying proceed until the pinnae
die back from half to three-fourths of their length, or sometimes
almost to the rachis of the leaf. When the first symptoms do
not appear until after the leaves have fully expanded the spots
develop much more slowly, and may remain marginal on the pinnae
so that the latter do not curl or die. In this event the spots often
develop a brown or reddish-brown border, and thereafter change
very little.
The causal agent of this blight disease of cycads in Florida is
not known. Speculative hypotheses have indicated pathogenic
bacteria or fungi, viruses and certain nutritional deficiencies.
Attention given to this problem from each of these view points
has not yielded conclusive evidence. Numerous attempts have been
made to isolate organisms from host tissues showing first symp-
toms of the disease, and others at successive stages during the
year, but in no instance has any bacterial organism been obtained
that would produce an infection on young expanding cycad foliage.
The literature examined has not revealed the name of a bacterial
parasite of cycads.
The possibility of a fungus being the causal agent has not been
fully explored. Stevenson (1926) has recorded foliage diseases
of cycads from Italy attributed to the following fungi: Cladospor-
ium cycadis Marc., Dendrophoma clypeata Sacc., Hendersonia
Togniniana Poll., Pestalozzia cycadis Allesch., Phyllosticta cycadina
Pass., and Septoria Montemartinii Poll. The following organisms
have been recorded in Florida by staff members of the Plant
Pathology Department of the University as associated with foliage
disease of the host: Leptosphaeria irrepta Niessl., Ascochyta
cycadina Scalia, Pestalozzia cycadis Allesch., Rhabdospora cycadis
Kauffm., Chaetophoma cycadis Cke., and Macrosporium commune
Rabh. Additional species of fungi belonging to the following
-. : ~'
.< *
Fig. 1. Blight disease of Cycas revoluta.
BLIGHT DISEASE OF OYCAS REVOLT
genera have been frequently isolated from diseased foliage during
the course of this study: Botrytis, Cladosporium, Alternaria,
Diaporthe, Helminthosporium, Fusarium, Glomorella, Phoma,
Macrophoma and Pestalozzia. Numerous inoculations were made
with pure cultures of most of these fungi but no infection occurred
that produced a disease similar to the blight observed in nature.
Because of the lack of infection the isolated fungi were not spe-
cifically identified.
A virus has been strongly suspected and may be the causal
agent, although juices extracted from severely diseased foliage
have been used as inoculum in concentrations as extracted and in
slight dilutions, for inoculating young plant parts by the emery
dust, needle pricking and hypodermic methods without success.
Insect vectors have not been thoroughly studied. Few species have
been found associated with the host, and none of those insects
occurring frequently on C. revoluta were regarded as possible car-
riers. Certain mineral deficiencies have been considered as the
possible cause of blight. Zinc, copper, iron, magnesium, sulphur
and manganese in small quantities have been applied to diseased
plants as a spray or as fertilizer amendments, but these caused
no visible change in disease symptoms. In this connection it
should also be noted that many diseased plants have been moved
from one location to another without affecting the progress of
the disease.
In the Gainesville area the blight disease is most noticeable
and causes the greatest damage during May and June. About
this time the new whorls of leaves appear and develop. They
show the disease most conspicuously, and sometimes the foliage is
so completely killed that the plant may produce a second whorl
within a few months, although normally only a single whorl is
produced during one year. If the blight is less severe, a portion
of the pinnae may survive and remain apparently free from the
disease. Some lightly infected pinnae may also continue to remain
green, although showing some spots or dead areas. The host plant'
is evergreen, retaining leaves usually for several years, so that
the spotted foliage may remain on the plant while the succeeding
whorl of leaves develops. After the new leaves have fully expanded
and become hardened they apparently become more or less immune
to further attack, as new spots are not formed, nor do old spots
change greatly in size. The spotted areas become overgrown with
a great variety of weak parasitic and saprophytic fungi, some of
which have been enumerated. This condition continues to exist
for the remainder of the year and while the next whorl develops.
132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Then the cycle of the disease is repeated with the newly developing
leaves. The disease appears to be systemic and perennial and
each year becomes increasingly more severe until the plant dies:
A diseased plant has not been known to recover from the disease
nor to produce a healthy whorl of leaves during any successive
season. The disease is thought to be contagious because of the
appearance of symptoms on previously healthy plants growing
close to diseased ones, although not all healthy plants growing in
such proximity have developed the disease during a ten-year ob-
servation period.
Control: Eradication of diseased plants as soon as their con-
dition is known is the only suggestion offered at this time.
LITERATURE CITED
BArLEY, L. H.
1914. The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture.
Vol. 1, pp. 931-933.
STEVENSON, J. A.
1926. Foreign plant diseases. Federal Hort. Board Contrib.,
U. S. Dept. Agr. P 57.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE DOMESTIC TUNG
INDUSTRY
FELIX S. LAGASSE1
Gainesville, Florida
The origin of the tung industry in the United States lay in
the importation of a small quantity of tung seeds from Hankow,
China in 1904 by Dr. David Fairchild of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture. Test plantings indicated that the trees seemed
adapted to an area about 150 miles wide extending across the
Gulf States and southern Georgia, and south in Florida to the
area around Gainesville.
The tung tree, Aleurites fordii Hemsl., is a member of the
Spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, to which such plants as castor
bean and poinsettia also belong. Of the five species (Aleurites
fordii, A. montana, A. cordata, A. moluccana, and A. trisperma)
belonging to the genus, Aleurites fordii is the only one grown
commercially in the United States.
Tung oil is obtained from the kernels of the dried fruit. This
fruit drops to the ground at maturity, usually in October, is al-
lowed to dry somewhat in the field, and is then picked up by hand
and allowed to dry to a moisture content of 12-13% to insure good
milling.
There are nine mills at which the dried fruit is hulled and the
oil expressed. They are located at Bogalusa, Covington and
Franklinton, Louisiana; Lucedale and Picayune, Mississippi;
Florala, Alabama; Cairo, Georgia; and Brooker and Gainesville,
Florida. A new mill is now under construction at Capps, Florida.
The oil content of the dried fruit varies but is in general about
20%. However, from a ton (2,000 pounds) of the dried fruit,
only about 320 pounds of oil (16%) is usually obtained due to
milling difficulties and losses.
Since its humble start from a few imported seeds in 1904, the
U. S. tung industry has developed to the stage where the value
of a normal crop is roughly two million dollars, and it is still in-
creasing. Between 1904 and 1920 most of the plantings were on
a small trial scale and consisted of only a few trees. As the trees
began to come into production and tests of the oil showed it to
be equal to or better than the imported oil, its commercial possi-
bilities began to be apparent. The early interest taken and as-
1 Pomologist, Division of Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases, Bureau
of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Re-
search Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.
134 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
distance rendered by members of the Florida Agricultural Experi-
ment Station made Gainesville and Florida the center of the tung
industry for a number of years.
Five states--Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mis-
sissippi-have approximately 99% of the tung trees in the United
States, the 'remainder being in Texas, California and South Caro-
lina. It is apparent from Table 1 that in 1930 Florida, then having
about 85% of all the trees, was the leading state; Mississippi was
second, with about 10%. By 1935, 57% of the tung acreage was
in Mississippi. Although planting was continuing in Florida, it
had but 29% of the total acreage, for additional plantings had
also been made in the other states. Between 1935 and 1940 tre-
mendous plantings were made in Mississippi, with the result that
the total reached well above nine million trees. Large acreages
were also planted to tung in Louisiana, which resulted in Florida's
dropping to third place. Thus in 1940, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Florida had 75, 14 and 10%, respectively, of the tung trees in the
United States. Between 1930 and 1940 the industry had increased
in size about 35 times, with about 13 million trees under care.
This rate of development is indicative of, and a tribute to, the
drive and push of the pioneers of the tung industry.
TABLE 1.-Percentages of tung trees of all ages, and of those non-bearing and
bearing, in several states; and percentages of the tung crop produced in these
states. (Calculated from Sixteenth Census of U.S., 1940).
All ages Non-bearing Bearing Crops
STATE Produced
1940 1935 1930 1940 1930 1940 1930 1939 1929
% % % % % % % % %
Georgia...... .6 5.9 .9 .6 .5 .7 16.9 1.6 2.0
Alabama..... .8 1.8 2.5 .6 2.3 1.3 8.0 1.1 4.7
Florida...... 9.6 29.3 85.8 8.9 86.0 10.9 75.1 40.0 93.2
Louisiana.... 13.9 5.9 1.3 12.2 1.4 17.4 ...... 15.0 ...
Mississippi.. 74.8 56.9 9.5 77.3 9.8 69.6 ...... 41.9 .1
Other States. .3 .2 ...... ...... .1 ..... .4 ......
It should be stated that although the greatest number of trees
has been planted in Mississippi and Louisiana, many of them are
strip planted. That is, only enough land was stumped to permit
cultivation of the soil immediately adjacent to the trees. This
method of planting, which prevents proper care and which often
results in disappointment, is no longer being practiced. It is
generally conceded that the tung orchards in Florida, although less
extensive, in general receive better care than those in other dis-
tricts. It is of value and interest to attempt to determine why
PRESENT STATUS OF TUNG INDUSTRY
such heavy plantings have been made in Mississippi and Louisiana
in recent years as compared with Florida.
EFFECT OF CLIMATE.
Temperature. It is too soon to state definitely which area will
prove most suitable for tung production. However, based on past
experience with damage by cold, which is one of the most serious
handicaps of the tung industry, many growers feel that the
Louisiana-Mississippi area is as safe as Florida, if not safer. There
are of course persons who disagree with this conclusion; they claim
that the Chase orchard at Lamont, Fla., is the most consistently
productive tung orchard in the world. Production records for the
two areas, over a period of years, must be obtained before this
can be accurately determined.
Rainfall. Weather bureau records show that there are about
ten inches more rainfall in the Louisiana-Mississippi area than in
the Florida tung areas. This is thought by some to favor the
Louisiana-Mississippi area. However, the season at which this
additional ten inches of rain occurs is of great importance, as
well as the relative rates of evaporation and soil moisture loss in
the two areas. More information is needed with respect to these
points.
EFFECT OF SOIL
Availability. It is generally agreed by all who have studied
the problem that there are much larger areas of the better type
soils available in the Louisiana-Mississippi area and in the North
and West Florida tung areas than in Central and South Florida.
The trend is definitely toward use of the better drained, heavier,
more fertile sandy loams of such types as Red Bay, Ruston, Norfolk
and Orangeburg, and away from the lighter, deep sands of the
Blanton and Norfolk types. The Leon and associated soils are
also now avoided due to poor drainage. This same preference for
the more fertile types of soil is also to be noted in Florida, where
the trend in planting is northward and westward from the districts
where the earliest plantings were made.
EFFECT OF COST.
The cost of land has in general been less per acre in the Louisi-
ana-Mississippi area than in Florida, due to the vast cut-over
timber lands available in the former states. Largely because of
this the average size of tung orchards is much greater in the
Louisiana-Mississippi area than in Florida.
136 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
PRODUCTION.
That an urgent need exists to produce and conserve all of the
tung oil possible is evident when one realizes that previous to the
present war we imported annually from China as much as 175
million pounds. This supply has been cut off, and our needs for
tung oil in war-time industries have multiplied many times. Small
though it is, our domestic supply of four to six million pounds
annually in good years is a welcome addition to our diminishing
stockpile. Tung oil is now listed as a strategic material and is
available only for essential war use. The value of a six million
pound crop at the present ceiling price of 37.5 cents per pound at
the mill is approximately two and one quarter million dollars.
Owing to the greater average age of its trees, and also probably
in part to the better care given them, Florida produced approxi-
mately 40% (Table 1) of the domestic supply of tung oil in 1940,
even though at this time the state had only 11% of the bearing
trees.
ECONOMIC POSSIBILITIES
So many persons have exhibited interest in the economic possi-
bilities of tung that a few words on this point seem to be called for.
The present tung industry was developed on the basis of a price
of 12 to 15 cents per pound for the oil,' and it should be kept in
mind that within a few years after the war's end the price of
tung oil will probably return to approximately this level. Under
war-time conditions, all owners who have well-located, mature
tung orchards are able to make a profit with the oil at 37.5 cents
per pound, although owing to the present high costs of production
the margin of profit is much less than might be supposed.
Under normal conditions the situation is somewhat different.
Without going too far into the details of cost of production in
peace time, the following figures will help to show the economic
status of tung growing at normal price levels. In the past it cost
100 to 150 dollars per acre to buy and clear the land and bring
an acre of tung orchard through its fifth year. After that produc-
tion costs, exclusive of harvesting and milling, were roughly 15
to 20 dollars per acre. An acre of tung trees located on the most
suitable soil is capable in frost-free years of producing from one
to two tons of fruit per acre, from which 320 to 640 pounds of oil
could be expressed. This amount of oil would have a value, at
15 cents per pound, of 48 to 96 dollars per acre. When allowance
is made for reduction in yield or occasional total loss of crop from
PRESENT STATUS OF TUNG INDUSTRY
low temperatures in some years, it can readily be seen that tung
growing is no easy, get-rich-quick business. However, by choosing
a suitable site and soil, and with the use of selected trees and
good management, it is believed possible to produce a good return
on the investment.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
MINERAL NUTRITION PROBLEMS IN FLORIDA
TUNG ORCHARDS
MATTHEW DROSDOFF AND FELIx S. LAGASSE1
Gainesville, Florida
Practically all of the soils planted to tung in Florida are unable
to supply to the trees the important mineral elements in amounts
adequate to maintain satisfactory growth and production. The
questions involved in providing the trees with these elements, eco-
nomically, in sufficient quantities and in proper proportions for
maximum results constitute some of the most important problems.
in the production of tung oil. During this present emergency
the pressing need for tung oil on the one hand and the shortage
of certain essential fertilizers on the other serve to emphasize
the complexity- of the problem.
Although it might be expected that tung trees would have the
same general mineral requirements for optimum growth and pro-
duction as other tree crops of the region, this is not altogether
the case. For example, in certain areas in northern Florida tung
trees will exhibit potassium deficiency symptoms while pecan
trees receiving similar fertilizer treatment will grow normally.
This would indicate that tung trees have specific mineral require-
ments necessitating special considerations.
Perhaps more important than this, however, is that fact that
tung trees in Florida are planted on a wide variety of soils, rang-
ing from the very light textured Norfolk sand of the central ridge
section to the heavy red soils of northern Florida. This range in
soil conditions constitutes an important consideration in arriving
at the fertilizer requirements of the tung tree. In a sense it is
misleading to speak of fertilizer requirements for tung trees with-
out specifically indicating the particular soil conditions under
which the trees are being grown. The problem of supplying min-
eral nutrients to tung trees growing on Norfolk sand, for example,
is considerably different than with trees on Red Bay or Fellowship
sandy loam.
DISTRIBUTION OF TUNG ORCHARDS IN FLORIDA
The distribution of tung orchards in Florida in a general way
follows both a geographic and a soil pattern. The different areas
1Respectively Associate Soil Technologist and Pomologist, Division of
Fruit and Vegetable Crops and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils
and Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural Research Administration,
U. S. Department of Agriculture.
140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
can be conveniently grouped as follows: (1) Northern and West-
ern Florida, (2) Gainesville area and (3) Central sandy area.
Northern and Western Florida. Tung orchards in this area
are for the most part located on well drained and aerated sandy
loams. These soils generally have a sandy clay subsoil that is
dither yellow, brown or red or intermediate between these colors.
They are classified as Norfolk, Ruston, Red Bay or closely related
sandy loams and can be considered as having the best possibilities
for successful tung growing. The supplementary mineral needs
of trees on these soils are less than on the soils of the other sec-
tions. There are some sandy areas planted to tung in this. region
and the mineral nutrition problems in these areas are more com-
parable to those in the central sandy ared.
Gainesville area. Tung orchards in this area are growing on
a wide variety of soils, but for the most part they are intermediate
between the northern and western Florida area and the central
sandy region in their mineral requirements. Most of the soils
in the area have been formed from the phosphate sandstone of
the Hawthorne formation. The predominant soil types include
the Arredondo and Gainesville fine sandy loams, Fort Meade loamy
fine sand, and the Norfolk, Leon and Scranton fine sands.
Central sandy area. The soils in this region planted to tung
trees are predominantly composed of Norfolk and closely related
sands. Because of the low clay content of these soils they have
the highest requirement of mineral nutrients for successful tung
production. This area provides a difficult problem in economically
supplying the mineral needs of the trees.
METHODS OF EVALUATING MINERAL REQUIREMENTS
A number of techniques have been used in Florida for evaluat-
ing the mineral requirements of tung trees. These are discussed
briefly below.
1. Deficiency symptoms. If the supply of an element to the
tree is too inadequate, an abnormal condition of the foliage usually
develops. These leaf symptoms furnish an excellent guide for
diagnosing mineral needs and in the development of intelligent
fertilizer practices. It should be emphasized, however, that these
symptoms develop only when the deficiency is acute. Usually
the tree is retarded in growth and production before these symp-
toms develop. At the present time deficiency symptoms on tung
foliage have been recognized for nitrogen, potassium, zinc, man-
ganese, copper, iron, and magnesium.
2. Leaf analysis. The use of chemical leaf analysis correlated
NUTRITION PROBLEMS IN TUNG
with soil analysis and tree performance has come into extensive
use in recent years for diagnosing mineral requirements of plants.
Although leaf symptoms of deficiency are helpful for diagnostic
purposes, they develop, as previously mentioned, only after the
nutritional disorder is well established. Leaf analysis has the
advantage in that certain mineral needs can be anticipated under
different soil conditions before the appearance of any foliage
abnormalities. Leaf analysis has also been particularly useful
as an aid in diagnosing certain of the leaf symptoms and serves
as a guide in setting up field trials to correct the disorders.
3. Soil analysis. This is another important and useful tool which
has been used in tung investigations for arriving at a more in-
telligent utilization of mineral fertilizers. At present it should be
considered a research tool supplementing other experimental tech-
niques. It has been particularly helpful in interpreting the results
of fertilizer experiments and as a guide for fertilizer practices in
some areas. Unsolved problems in soil sampling for a tree crop,
in methods of soil analysis and in interpretation of the data ob-
tained limit the use of soil analysis for diagnostic purposes.
4. Field experiments. In the last analysis, the final test in the
solution of any mineral nutrition problem is the response of the
tree in the field to applications of fertilizer varying in amount and
in the relative proportions of the constituent elements. Field trials
with tung have been particularly helpful in confirming diagnoses
made from abnormal appearances of the foliage and analyses of
leaf and soil. The growth and production of trees in the orchard
receiving differential fertilizer treatment are the most important
and final criteria from the standpoint of making practical recom-
mendations to the commercial tung grower.
MINERAL REQUIREMENTS IN THE DIFFERENT AREAS
This section deals with the elements that must be supplied to
the tung orchard with reference to specific problems in the vari-
ous areas. Although each element is discussed separately there is
some necessary discussion of important interrelationships with
the other elements.
Nitrogen. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the most
commonly known elements used in fertilizer materials and are
used in greatest amounts. In fact these elements and some form
of lime were the only fertilizer materials applied to soils until
relatively recently. At present, however, a number of other min-
eral elements have been found essential and are commonly used in
fertilizers.
142 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Nitrogen must be supplied in one form or another to all tung
orchards in Florida in relatively large amounts as compared to
the other elements. The tree can make little growth and will bear
little or no fruit if the supply of nitrogen is low. The most char-
acteristic symptom of nitrogen starvation is a uniform yellowing
of the foliage. In acute stages a purplish coloration is evident in
the petioles and on the under surface of the leaves. In general
it can be said that most tung orchards in Florida do not receive
an adequate supply of nitrogen for optimum growth and produc-
tion. Increased applications of nitrogenous fertilizers or a more
extensive cover crop program can safely be recommended for most
tung orchards. Especially on the sandy soils with their low or-
ganic matter content the deficiency of nitrogen is likely to be acute.
Phosphorus. Most mixed fertilizers usually contain sufficient
phosphorus to meet the requirements of the tung tree. Although
this element is one of those most needed for plant growth, as yet
there has been no evidence in Florida tung orchards from foliage
symptoms or leaf analyses of a deficiency of this element. How-
ever, because of the high fixing capacity of the heavier soils in
northern and western Florida more phosphate in the fertilizer
mixture is required than in the other areas. As most of the soils
in the tung orchards in the Gainesville area are derived from phos-
phatic materials, there has been no problem with that element in
this area. Fertilizers applied to tung orchards in the central sandy
section generally contain more than enough phosphate for optimum
results.
Potassium. Of the three so-called primary fertilizer elements,
potassium has presented the biggest problem to Florida tung
growers. Extensive areas in northern and western Florida tung
orchards have been found to be severely affected in growth and
production because of a deficiency of potassium (Drosdoff &
Painter, 1942; Painter & Drosdoff, 1943). More recently the de-
ficiency symptoms, characterized by an interveinal chlorosis and
necrosis of the foliage have also been noted in some orchards in
the Gainesville area. The deficiency has occurred on soils other-
wise considered well suited to tung trees and in spite of the fact
that potassium has been extensively used in fertilizer mixtures.
The use of a fertilizer mixture containing a high percentage of
potassium as compared to nitrogen and phosphate appears at the
present writing to correct the trouble, but more information on
this problem is being sought by both the State and Federal experi-
ment station workers.
Zinc. Of the so-called trace or secondary elements, zinc is the
NUTRITION PROBLEMS IN TUNG
most widely needed and is used in the fertilizer program of most
orchardists in Florida. The lack of zinc caused considerable loss
in many of the earlier planted tung orchards until the trouble was
identified (Mowry & Camp, 1934). The characteristic foliage
symptoms of zinc deficiency, bronzing and malformation of the
younger leaves, have been observed on tung trees on practically
all of the well drained soils in Florida. Northern and western
Florida soils are perhaps least susceptible to zinc deficiency, al-
though the application of a small amount of zinc sulfate is recom-
mended .in this area as a regular fertilizer practice. The Gaines-
ville and the central sandy sections are especially susceptible to
zinc deficiency and in these' areas successful tung growing is hardly
possible without the regular use of zinc sulfate as a fertilizer ma-
terial. Although the tree needs only a very small amount of this
element, the high fixing capacities of the soils require the applica-
tion of relatively large amounts of zinc sulfate. Spraying the
foliage with water solutions of zinc sulfate has been successfully
used by some growers. This practice requires much less zinc sul-
fate than do the soil applications but most tung growers are not
equipped with spraying outfits and it is questionable whether the
expense involved in purchasing this equipment is justifiable for
the purpose.
Manganese. A partial chlorosis or "frenching" of tung leaves
was found to be indicative of a deficiency of manganese, (Reuther
& Dickey, 1937). This disorder is not nearly so widespread or so
severe as that caused by zinc deficiency. No orchards on the
heavier soils of northern and western Florida have been found to
be affected. Leaf analyses indicate a sufficiency of this element
in that area. In the central sandy and Gainesville areas, however,
many of the orchards have shown symptoms of manganese de-
ficiency scattered throughout the planting and many growers in
these areas are now regularly using manganese sulfate in the fer-
tilizer program. In an orchard near Reddick, Florida an acute
case of manganese deficiency was found and the trouble corrected
by soil applications of manganese sulfate (Dickey & Drosdoff,
1943). Regular soil applications of manganese sulfate in amounts
equivalent to the zinc sulfate used can be safely recommended for
most tung orchards in the Gainesville and central sandy sections.
Copper. Only recently has copper deficiency been recognized
as an important problem in Florida tung orchards (Drosdoff &
Dickey, 1943). This deficiency is characterized by a cupping and
chlorosis of the leaves and defoliation and dieback of the shoots.
Parts of two large commercial orchards were first found to be
144 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
severely affected by the disorder. Subsequently this deficiency
was noted in other orchards. Thus far the northern and western
Florida tung orchards are free of the trouble and it is not expected
to show up in that area as evidenced by leaf analyses. In most
of the orchards in the Gainesville and central sandy areas it is
believed that small applications of copper sulfate are a necessary
part of the fertilizer program. This is especially true in the areas
where the deficiency symptoms have been observed.
Iron. Iron deficiency symptoms have been found in localized
areas in three orchards in the Gainesville area (Dickey, 1942).
Chlorosis of the leaves is the most characteristic feature of this
deficiency. At the present time the trouble is not sufficiently
widespread nor is enough information available to justify the use
of iron sulfate in the fertilizer program except for those trees
which show the symptoms.
Magnesium. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency have been
observed to be widespread in tung orchards in the Gainesville and
central sandy area (Drosdoff & Kenworthy, 1944). It has not
been found in northern and western Florida. A marginal necrosis
of the leaves occurring late in the season is the most characteristic
feature of this deficiency. Some orchards have been so severely
affected as to cause considerable concern to the grower. As yet
neither magnesium sulfate nor any other magnesium carrying
fertilizer has been used in commercial tung orchards but the wide-
spread appearance of the symptoms will necessitate the use of some
form of magnesium in the fertilizer program of affected orchards.
Experimental work has not proceeded far enough to warrant any
recommendations except to state that large applications of mag-
nesium sulfate over a two-year period corrected the disorder on
severely affected 7 to 10-year-old tung trees.
SUMMARY
Experience and research have shown that practically all of the
soils in Florida on which tung trees are planted require additional
amounts of some of the mineral elements to maintain satisfactory
growth and production.
The tung areas in Florida follow, in a general way, both a geo-
graphic and soil pattern and can be grouped as follows: (1) North-
ern and western Florida, (2) Gainesville area, (3) Central sandy
area.
The several methods used in evaluating the mineral require-
ments of tung trees have been: (1) Consideration of the de-
ficiency symptoms or abnormal leaf patterns. (2) A comparison
NUTRITION PROBLEMS IN TUNG
of the analyses of normal and abnormal leaves. (3) The use of
soil analyses within its recognized limits. (4) The establishment
of field experiments in which varying amounts and different pro-
portions of the mineral elements are supplied to the tung trees.
Additional amounts of nitrogen are needed in all three of the
above areas. No deficiency of phosphorus has as yet been observed
or recognized on tung trees in Florida. A severe potassium de-
ficiency was found to exist in extensive areas in northern and
western Florida tung orchards.
Of the trace or secondary elements, zinc is most widely needed
in supplemental amounts and is supplied as zinc sulfate.
The lack of sufficient manganese also causes a partial chlorosis
that can be readily corrected with manganese sulfate.
A deficiency of copper results in a cupping and chlorosis, de-
foliation of the leaves and dieback of the twigs. Copper sulfate
applied to the soil or as a spray to the foliage corrects the difficulty.
Iron deficiency symptoms have been observed in limited or
localized areas and were corrected by the application of iron sulfate.
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency have been observed in the
Gainesville and central sandy areas. Application of magnesium
sulfate over a two-year period corrected the disorder.
LITERATURE CITED
DICKEY, R. D.
1942. Iron deficiency of tung in Florida. Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 381.
DICKEY, R. D., AND MATTHEW DROSDOFF.
1943. Control of manganese deficiency in a commercial tung orchard.
Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 42: 74-78.
DROSDOFF, MATTHEW, AND R. D. DICKEY.
1943. Copper deficiency of tung trees. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci.,
42: 79-84.
DROSDOFF, MATTHEW, AND ALVIN L. KENWOBTHY.
1944. Magnesium deficiency of tung trees. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci.,
44: 1-7.
DROSDOFF, MATTHEW, AND JOHN H. PAINTER.
1942. A chlorosis and necrosis of tung leaves associated with low
potassium content. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 41: 45-51.
MOWEY, HAROLD, AND A. F. CAMP.
1934. A preliminary report on zinc sulfate as a corrective for bronzing
of tung trees. Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 273.
PAINTER, JOHN H., AND MATTHEW DROSDOFF
1943. Results of preliminary tests on correction of potassium deficiency
in tung. Proc. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 42: 65-68.
REUTHER, WALTER, AND R. D. DICKEY.
1937. A preliminary report on frenching of tung trees. Fla. Agri. Exp.
Sta. Bull. 318.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
THE PLACE OF CENTRAL DISTILLATION IN THE
NAVAL STORES INDUSTRY
JOHN O. BOYNTON
Havana, Florida
Central distillation is a new phrase in the naval stores industry
-one less than fifteen years old. It means simply that operators
or producers of gum sell their product as gum instead of them-
selves processing it into turpentine and resin. Before 1930 such a
procedure was not possible, because there were no central stills.
A central still is a distillation plant erected in a location central
to a large volume of gum production. It depends for its success
upon the willingness of the producers to sell their gum rather
than process it themselves.
The idea of central distillation originated with W. J. Boynton
in 1927, when he and his brothers were operating five still sites
in as many directions from Tallahassee.1 In its inception it was
to be simply a central plant in Tallahassee to which all the gum
from the five operations would be hauled. By 1930 the idea had
expanded to include stilling for other producers for a fee, and
by 1933 it reached maturity with the straight, purchase of gum
from producers at a price based on its turpentine and rosin content
and rosin grade.
Shortly after 1933 the Glidden Company erected a central
distillation plant in Jacksonville. The idea for this plant was
probably entirely independent of the Tallahassee development,
and grew out of the, company's need for a regular and assured
supply of turpentine and rosin, and possibly because its need for
a particular grade and class of rosin. By 1935 the Peninsular
lConsultation with J. E. Hawkins of the Department of Chemistry, Uni-
versity of Florida (engaged in naval stores research), G. P. Shingler,
Chemist in charge of the Naval Stores Research Station at Olustee,
Florida and L. A. Goldblatt, Acting Chief of the Naval Stores Research
Division, Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, U. S. D. A.,
at New Orleans, revealed no knowledge by any of these men of any central
distillation project prior to that mentioned. Mr. Goldblatt, however,
commented as follows (letter, August 9, 1944) : "I infer that the specific
question involved is the one of priority for central stills. This would
depend upon one's definition of the terms central still and central dis-
tillation with respect not only to mode of operation, but also to facilities
provided. Of course, in the narrowest sense, the first person who ever
bought a barrel of gum for distillation could consider himself the original
operator of a central still. I do not have any personal explicit knowledge
of the existence of central stills prior to those discussed by Mr. Boynton."
-Editor.
148 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
Lurton Company of Pensacola was toying with the idea of central
distillation, and the Rosa Company had begun operations in South
Georgia.
During this time and until 1940 factorage houses bitterly op-
posed the development of central distillation, frequently forbidding
operators who were under financial obligations to them to sell
gum to central plants. Their reasons were simple-just a matter
of dollars and cents. Factors were losing plenty of potential
profits for every operation that began using the new facility.
Since they could not safely state the real grounds for their ob-
jection, they claimed that it affected the market adversely, since
a true picture of supply and demand could not be developed when
so much of the production did not go over the regular market
board.
Such is the history of most changes, however, and opposition
from those who stand to lose by the change cannot long delay the
inexorable march of progress. Today only one factorage house of
importance has failed to enter central distillation. Being unable
to block the progress of this development, they have bought in-
terests in existing plants or built competing ones.
There were many obstacles to be overcome in the early years
of central distillation. Boynton's still in Tallahassee could not
have sustained itself had not the volume of gum which the com-
pany's own operations produced been sufficient to warrant it.
As these operations for gum production grew less the volume from
surrounding producers increased. Owners of small tracts of
woodland began working their own timber rather than leasing
the right to old-line operators. So profitable did these ventures
prove that news of their success spread rapidly. More and more
gum began to come in. By 1935 Boynton had completely abandoned
gum production and was concentrating entirely on buying gum
from producers.
The radius over which gum flowed in began to increase. Better
roads were coming fast, and the year 1942 saw several operations
sending gum from 150 miles away. One operator within 25 miles
of Gainesville has hauled to Tallahassee for three years. Pro-
ducers who had to abide by the dictates of a factorage house be-
cause of financial obligations, bent every effort toward freeing
themselves from such restraint. Many of them have done so and
now sell gum to central stills. Many operators were slow to believe
that more net profit could be realized by this procedure than by
the old method of processing and selling through a factor. Most
of them are now convinced and are selling gum.
CENTRAL DISTILLATION IN NAVAL STORES
Early in the history of central distillation the naval stores
station at Olustee became interested in the idea and convinced
that the future of the industry lay in that direction. An improved
method of still-setting for the producer-processer had been devised
by Messrs. Shingler and Reed, and naval stores technologists (of
whom I was one) were furnished to supervise the construction of
stills by the improved method. The station then set to work to
devise a system of cleaning gum which would be suitable for use
at central stills. Much progress has been made along these lines.
Many of the central stills have used ideas obtained from the ex-
periment station, and two have used the plans of the station equip-
ment outright. More progress may yet be expected, both in clean-
ing gum and in distilling it.
The chips from the government method are clean and dry.
The chips from the old fire-still process are covered with their
weight of rosin, which is a total loss. The rosin from the gov-
ernment process is so clear that printing can easily be read through
it. The rosin made by the old method is so filled with impurities
that printing can be read through it with difficulty. The crude
gum, opaque and full of chips, is in strong contrast to the clear
liquid which is the cleaned gum.
Briefly, here are the reasons why central distillation of pine
gum is destined to be the only method employed in the future:
1. Within a few years all operations are going to be small,
since the large unbroken tracts of timber will be depleted. Small
operations cannot afford the expense of stilling.
2. Highway transportation makes delivery of gum to a central
still more convenient than delivery of the finished product to a
factor.
3. Timber owners have learned they can pay double the pre-
vailing wage to turpentine labor and still clear three to four times
what they once obtained as lease price from operators.
4. Federal financial aid for proper working of timber is an
added inducement for a man to operate his own timber and pro-
tect it from fire, thus insuring a better yield of gum, a faster growth
of timber, a thicker stand of new trees, and an ever-increasing
supply of gum for the still and of revenue for himself.
5. Competition from wood-rosin makers is forcing gum-rosin
producers to standardize and to advertise a standard product.
This can be done only at central stilling establishments.
150 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
6. The inevitable rise in standards of living will make the old
cheap labor operation impossible in the southland of tomorrow.
7. Central stills, with hundreds of barrels of gum, can so
blend their still charges as to produce any desired grade of rosin.
Under old conditions the rosins made were just what happened to
come out of the tail-gate. Today they are what is deliberately
and scientifically put in the charging cap.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
MULCHES TO CONTROL ROOT-KNOT
J. R. WATSON
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station
Root-knot, easily the most serious disease of vegetable crops
in Florida, has for many years been receiving a large part of the
attention of the Department of Entomology of the University of
Florida Agricultural Experiment Stationi. This nematode-caused
disease is present in practically all sandy land in Florida which
has been under cultivation for any considerable time. It attacks
most garden and vegetable crops, a great many herbaceous orna-
mental plants, many shrubs including roses and pittosporum, and
a considerable number of trees including peaches and mulberries.
Heavy mulching of susceptible plants is among the methods of
control which we have developed and advocated. It is particularly
important in the culture of perennial plants such as peaches, roses
and pittosporum, and is also very effective on many tall-growing
annuals, for instance okra. We have also successfully used a heavy
mulch on peas, papayas, squash, lettuce, and a variety of other
plants.
A wide assortment of materials has been tried for the mulch,
including paper, grass, leaf debris from the forest, water hyacinths
from ponds and lakes, crotalaria stems, and many other things.
The use of paper mulch has not been very successful, but any
vegetable material that will decay has proved very beneficial and
has been effective for some time after the removal of the mulch.
In all instances, mulched plots have shown much better growth
than was obtained on unmulched check-plots. Okra, which is one
of the most seriously affected of our truck and garden crops and
in unmulched check-plots is quickly killed, usually before producing
pods, makes good growth and produces a satisfactory crop when
mulched. This practice has uniformly resulted in better growth
of most plants, both out-of-doors and in pots in the greenhouse
where our experiments are continued during the winter1.
A puzzling feature of the situation is that the plants grown
in mulched plots or pots, although healthy, usually have fully as
many knot-galls on their roots as do the weaker unmulched control
plants. Of course, we never expect complete elimination of any
pest or disease by biological means2, and it is therefore not sur-
iThe root-knot nematode is relatively inactive out-of-doors from November
1 until April.
2The most thorough biological control that has ever been attained is ap-
parently that of the cottony cushion scale by the Australian lady beetle.
Even here the result, although commercially satisfactory, is not 100%
destruction of the scale insect.
152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
prising that root-knot is still present in the mulched plants. What
is remarkable is that the plants are so increased in vigor by mulch-
ing, without any apparent reduction in the amount of nematode
infestation. The mulched plants do, however, have more good
healthy roots than the unmulched ones. The result is evidently
not due simply to shade, since mulch' paper does not prove ef-
fective. Nor-although the decaying mulch undoubtedly supplies
food to the plants-can it be accounted for solely by increased
fertilization, since plants in the check plots and pots supplied with
an abundance of fertilizer showed no such response. Nor can the
effect of the mulch in reducing water loss from the soil and thus
minimizing the bad effects of drought be the factor responsible.
It is true that plants suffering from drought are always more
seriously affected by the presence of root-knot than are those
with plenty of moisture; but the soil in the check plots and pots
was never allowed to become dry.
What, then, does cause the increased vigor and growth of
mulched plants as contrasted with the controls? Workers in Hawaii
have suggested that it is the growth of fungi in the mulch that is
responsible, and some European observers have actually seen fun-
gous nyphae penetrate the bodies of root-knot nematodes. But if
killing the nematodes by fungi is the explanation, how is one to
account for the presence of so many galls on the roots of the
mulched plants? Is it not possible that the mulch adds some
material to the soil, aside from fertilizer, which stimulates the
growth of plants?
A strong hint that the mulch does provide some such growth-
producing substance other than fertilizer is given by the results
of experiments on tomatoes and okra carried out during 1942-43.
Four sets of pots.were used; one set was mulched, another was well
fertilized but not mulched, a third was watered with an infusion
obtained by soaking mulch-material in a bucket of water, and a
fourth was watered with the same amount of tap-water. The
mulched plants made the best growth, although the amount of
mulch material in each pot was small, the pots being only eight
inches in diameter and the depth of the mulch one or two inches.
The plants watered with the mulch infusion made the next best
growth; those which were fertilized but neither mulched nor
watered with mulch infusion were severely injured and did rather
poorly; and the unmulched plants which received neither mulch
infusion nor fertilizer all died without getting more than a few
inches tall or producing any crop. Further experiments are planned
MULCHES TO CONTROL ROOT-KNOT
to try to find out how the mulch protects plants from the effect
of the nematodes.
Whatever the explanation may be, the fact seems clearly demon-
strated that a mulch gives a remarkable degree of protection from
root-knot.
Besides its importance in the culture of perennial plants such
as roses, pittosporum and peaches, it is especially valuable to the
back-yard gardener. It conserves moisture and makes plants
better able to withstand drought; it adds plant food to the soil;
it reduces the amount of cultivation necessary and helps to prevent
the growth of weeds--especially nut-grass, Bermuda, and other
grasses. If thick enough the mulch will destroy nut-grass by
shading. A disadvantage of mulching, of course, is the interference
with cultivation, which limits its usefulness in large-scale truck-
farming. Another disadvantage, especially in respect to truck-
farming, is that it tends to increase the susceptibility of plants-
especially those that are low growing-to frost injury, since frost
forms more abundantly on straw and ground litter than on the
surface of bare ground. On the other hand if the mulch can be
pulled over the plants on cold nights it gives them considerable
protection from cold.
In view of the importance of mulch for controlling root-knot
and as a fertilizer and moisture-conserver, the burning of grass
and weeds almost universally practiced by town-dwellers is ex-
tremely wasteful. If property owners in towns cannot themselves
use this material as mulch for their vegetable gardens, on flower
beds, or around shrubbery, and must dispose of it in some way,
the municipality should itself conserve it. The heaps of grass,
leaves and other vegetable trash should be collected, piled in some
out-of-the-way spot where the material can be allowed to decay,
and placed under the care of someone who knows how to handle
mulch. It can then be used in the city parks or sold to gardeners.
The fertility of the soil is one of the things that we must learn
to conserve and pass on to succeeding generations, and the practice
of mulching is one of the best but at present least used means of
doing this.
Proc. Fla. Acad. Sci., Vol. 7, Nos. 2-3, 1944 (1945).
A STUDY OF QUAIL FOOD HABITS IN PENINSULAR
FLORIDA
ALBERT MIDDLETON LAESSLE
University of Florida
Knowledge of quail food habits is not only essential for under-
standing the ecology of this bird, but is also basic to any intelligent
planning for its conservation. Although a very extensive and ex-
cellent food study was included by H. L. Stoddard in his classic
work, "The Bob-white Quail: Its Habits, Preservation and In-
crease" (1936), Stoddard's data from analysis of crop and gizzard
contents were nearly all obtained in regions north of peninsular
Florida, the southernmost being from fifteen birds taken in the
vicinity of Gainesville, Florida. S. D. Judd (1905) studied crops
from thirty-nine Florida quail, but all of these were from the
western part of the state. Since the food habits of any such wide-
spread species as the bob-white quail will almost inevitably differ
from region to region, with the change in natural vegetation, the
investigation upon which this paper is.based was undertaken to
increase our meagre knowledge of the food habits of quail in
peninsular Florida.
Although peninsular Florida lies entirely in the coastal plain,
a province well covered by Stoddard's work further north, the
flora of the peninsula differs markedly from that of the rest of
the coastal plain. In spite of its slight elevation and relief, the
highest point being barely over three hundred feet above the
sea, Florida possesses a wide variety of soils with which are as-
sociated characteristic types of vegetation. Certain of these plant
associations (sand scrub, tropical hammock, etc.) are distinctive
of the peninsula. Other more widespread habitats, such as flat-
woods, sandhills, non-tropical hammocks, etc. differ from one
region of the state to another, and in Florida as a whole compared
with other parts of the coastal plain. It is evident, therefore, that
the environments and food habits of quail in peninsular Florida
are not necessarily the same as in even so near a region as Florida
north of the peninsula.
I am indebted to Dr. J. Speed Rogers, of the Department of
Biology, University of Florida, whose aid was invaluable in plan-
ning and carrying out the studies which form the basis of this
paper. I am very grateful to Dr. T. H. Hubbell, of the same de-
partment, for the identification of nearly all of the animal matter
and for his preparation of a list of all species of insects recorded
in this work. Dr. F. N. Young was helpful in determining Coleop-
156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FLORIDA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
tera and snails. Mr. Erdman West and Miss Lillian Arnold, both
of the University of Florida Herbarium, generously made the Ex-
periment Station seed collection available for comparisons. Drs.
A. F. Carr and H. L. Knowles, and Messrs O. E. Frye, J. S. Rogers
Jr., Fred West, T. R. Young, Lewis Marchand, and A. W. Brown
all aided by contributing quail crops.
The principal habitats from which the material for this study
was obtained are the sandhills, the flatwoods, and to a lesser extent
the hammocks. These are, in fact, the chief habitats widespread
throughout peninsular Florida in which quail typically occur. An-
other more local and distinctive habitat is the rocky pineland found
in the southern East Coast region, extending from just north of
Miami southwest to Royal-palm Park. All of these habitats are
much modified floristically where agriculture is or has been re-
cently carried on.
In general the sandhills' exhibit a rolling topography; in places
they are low, with gentle slopes, elsewhere steep-sided and of con-
siderable height. Most sandhill soils belong to the Norfolk Series2;
they are well drained and rather poor in soil nutrients. The domi-
nant trees on such areas are longleaf pine (Pinus australis) 3, turkey-
oak (Quercus laevis), blue-jack (Quercus cinerea), and small post-
oak (Q. Margaretta).
Flatwoods of the peninsula occupy level terrain. The soil
texture is sandy; poor drainage, with hardpan within a few feet
of the surface, is characteristic of the soils of most of this habitat.
At least three-quarters of the flatwoods soils belong to the Leon
Series. Long-leaf pine (Pinus australis), slash-pine (Pinus
palustris), and in the moister parts, pond or black-pine (Pinus
serotina), are the dominant trees.
The rocky pinelands4 of the southern East Coast have a soil
composed of a shallow covering of sand with oolitic limestone out-
crops nearly everywhere. The land is rather flat and low, twenty
feet above sea level being considered high. Low areas with marl
soil occur in small strips between the higher pinelands. These
marl areas are largely planted to winter vegetables, but after the
winter crops have been harvested are usually occupied by ragweed
iThis "habitat" is approximately synonymous with "high pine woods"
Watson (1926), "longleaf pine-turkey-oak," Society of American Forest-
ers (1932), "high-pine," Carr (1940), etc.
2Henderson (1939).
3All plant names used in this paper follow Small (1933).
40ther authors include the flat, rocky pinelands of Southern Florida
under the term "flatwoods."
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