Updates

This is a list of recent updates to the site, in reverse chronological order.

March 2019

The nothospecific epithet of Fragaria ×ananassa (Rosaceae) was misspelled in the Flora Novae Angliae manual (it was spelled as “ananasa”).

Diplazium pycnocarpum (Woodsiaceae) is now referred to as Homolosorus pycnocarpus (Spreng.) Pichi Sermolli based on the work of Wei et al. (2010) and summarized in Rothfels et al. (2012).

Wei, R., X.-C. Zhang, and X.-P. Qi. 2010. Phylogeny of Diplaziopsis and Homalosorus based on two chloroplast DNA sequences: rbcL and rps4+rps4-trnS IGS. Acta Botanica Yunnanica 17: 46–54.

Rothfels, C.J., M.A. Sundue, L.-Y. Kuo, A. Larsson, M. Kato, E. Schuettpelz, and K.M. Pryer. 2012. A revised family-level classification for eupolypod II ferns (Polypodiidae: Polypodiales). Taxon 61: 515–533.

Phylogenetic study indicates that the genus Consolida (Ranunculaceae) is nested within Delphinium. Therefore, New England species previously placed in the genus Consolida need to be referred to by the following names:

Delphinium ajacis L.
Delphinium consolida L.
Delphinium orientale J. Gay

Jabbour, F., and S.S. Renner. 2012. A phylogeny of Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae) shows that Aconitum is nested within Delphinium and that Late Miocene transitions to long life cycles in the Himalayas and Southwest China coincide with bursts in diversification. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 62: 928–942.

February 2019

Plants called Euphorbia dentata (Euphorbiaceae) collected from New England have been determined to be (at least in large part) Euphorbia davidii Subils (David’s spurge), as briefly summarized in Peirson et al. (2016). While Euphorbia dentata is native to much of the southern United States and Great Lakes region, Euphorbia davidii is non-native to this continent. The two species are separated as follows in the Dichotomous Key.

We have gone through all the plants in several families of grasses, which amounts to many genera and species, and updated the names and classifications. More families will be updated in the coming months.

January 2019

1a. Leaf blades usually widest at the middle, narrow-elliptic to broad-elliptic; midstem leaves with petioles often nearly as long as the blade; hairs on abaxial leaf blade surface stiff, strongly tapered, and with a broad basal cell; capsules 4-4.8 mm long; seeds angular in transection, unevenly tuberculate, 2.2–2.9 mm wide ........... E. davidii
1b. Leaf blades usually widest below the middle, lanceolate to trullate; midstem leaves with petioles not usually more than 1/3 as long as the blade; hairs on abaxial leaf blade surface weak, filiform, and without a broad basal cell; capsules 3.5-4 mm long; seeds rounded in transection, evenly tuberculate, 1.7–2.1 mm wide ...... E. dentata

Peirson, J.A., P.E. Berry, and V.W. Steinmann. 2016. Euphorbia section Poinsettia. Pages 317–324 in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, editors. Flora of North America, volume 12. Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

The genus Sibbaldiopsis (Rosaceae) has been included within the genus Sibbaldia based on the work of Paule and Soják (2002). The correct name for our species formerly called Potentilla tridentata and Sibbaldiopsis tridentata is now:

Sibbaldia tridentata (Ait.) Paule & Soják

Paule, J., and J. Soják. 2009. Taxonomic comments on the genus Sibbaldiopsis Rydb. Journal of the National Museum (Prague), Natural History Series Vol. 178: 15–16.

December 2018

The Dichotomous Key now allows jumping to a Carex section with the addition of a new drop-down menu. This menu appears on each of the key’s pages for the genus Carex.

A new generic concept has been proposed for Piptatherum (Poaceae), with our species listed in the flora now placed in either Patis or Piptatheropsis. A key to these genera is below that would replace the current couplets where Oryzopsis and Piptatherum occur in the Poaceae key to the genera.

a. Lemmas dark brown to nearly black; leaves with minute ligules or none, the uppermost blades flat, 8–15 mm wide, longer than (10–)12 cm; glumes 5- to 9-viened, with faint cross-veinlets .......... Patis
b. Lemmas pale green, gray, or pale brown; leaves with ligules, those of the upper leaves 1.5–3 mm long, the uppermost blades involute, 1–2 mm wide, shorter than 10(–12) cm; glumes 1- to 5- veined, without cross-veinlets
- aa. Panicle open to somewhat congested, the branches spreading to ascending, each branch bearing usually 2 or more spikelets; uppermost leaf blades well-developed, 1–35 cm long; basal leaves deciduous; flowers with 2 styles; callus of lemma pubescent with hairs 0.1–0.5 mm long .......... (in part) Piptatheropsis
- bb. Panicle very narrow, raceme-like, with appressed branches, each branch bearing usually a single spikelet; uppermost leaf blades absent or with a blade shorter than 1 cm; basal leaves wintergreen; flowers with 1 style; callus of lemma pubescent with hairs 1–1.5 mm long .......... (in part) Oryzopsis

Patis racemosa (Sm.) Romasch., P.M. Peterson & Soreng
Piptatheropsis canadensis (Poir.) Romasch., P.M. Peterson & Soreng
Piptatheropsis pungens (Torr.) Romasch., P.M. Peterson & Soreng

Romaschenko, K., P.M. Peterson, R.J. Soreng, O. Futorna, and A. Susanna. 2011. Phylogenetics of Piptatherum s.l. (Poaceae: Stipeae): Evidence for a new genus, Piptatheropsis, and resurrection of Patis. Taxon 60: 1703–1716.

November 2018

What if a very deeply nested key excerpt is needed, say, 3 levels deep?

1. Item 1
2. Item 2
- 2a. Item 2a
- 2b. Item 2b
  - 2b1. Item 2b1
  - 2b2. Item 2b2
  - 2b3. Item 2b3
- 2c. Item 2c
3. Item 3

This is a reference for this update record.

There can be multiple references per update record.

October 2018

Sometimes an update may need to ~~put a strikethrough line over some text~~ to help emphasize a change.

July 2018

This was an update from back in last July. (Any date can be chosen for updates, allowing back-dating of updates as needed.)