Vascular Flora of the South Fork Native Plant Reserve, Van Buren County, Arkansas

The South Fork Native Plant Preserve, a property owned and managed by the Gates Rogers Foundation, Inc., is located along the South Fork of the Little Red River (now Greers Ferry Lake) in Van Buren County, Arkansas. We conducted a floristic inventory of a 61.3 ha study area consisting of the preserve, adjacent lakefront property owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and a riparian corridor on neighboring land from February through November 2005. A total of 582 vascular plant taxa, representing 118 familes and 336 genera, was documented including six species (Carex lupuliformis Sartwell ex L. H. Dewey, Carex swanii (Fernald) Mack., Claytonia caroliniana Michx., Nemastylis nuttallii Pichering ex R. C. Foster, Phemeranthus rugospermus (Holz.) Kiger, and Viola canadensis L. var. canadensis) tracked by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission as species of conservation concern in Arkansas. Fifty-five taxa (9.5% of the total) are considered introduced to the state. The largest plant families represented were Asteraceae (69 taxa), Poaceae (62 taxa), Cyperaceae (51 taxa), and Fabaceae (39 taxa). Fourteen distinct communities (habitat types) were delineated in the study area. Among these, sandstone glades, a bedrock-bottom stream, bluffs, and an upland depression wetland were found to contribute significantly to the species richness of the study area. The depression wetland contained three species ( Vaccinium fuscatum Ait., Acer rubrum L. var. drummondii (Hook. & Arn. ex Nutt.) Sarg., and Carex lupuliformis Sartwell ex L. H. Dewey) more typical of the lowlands of the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Mississippi Alluvial Plain.