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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Washington, D.C. » National Arboretum » Floral and Nursery Plants Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #319970
Title: Menispermaceae

Author
item Whittemore, Alan

Submitted to: Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/10/2018
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: This contribution will form a section of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, a floristic manual produced at New York Botanical Garden to provide up-to-date information on the taxonomy, distribution, and ecological status of all plants that are wild or invasive from Maine and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, south to Virginia and northern Missouri, together with a guide for identification, aimed at professional and sophisticated amateur users. The taxonomy, distribution, and ecological status of all species of the family Menispermaceae that grow outside of cultivation in the northeast is reevaluated, based primarily on examination of herbarium specimens, and a guide for identification is supplied. Three genera and three species grow without cultivation in the northeast, all native to the region. This contribution provides up-to-date information on the biology of this family, along with identification aids. It will support accurate identification of invasive plants in the region. It will be used by professional land managers, educators, conservationists, and sophisticated amateur botanists and horticulturalists, insuring that work on land management, conservation, and horticulture will be based on full, accurate and up-to-date information about the basic biology and relationships of these organisms.

Technical Abstract: The family Menispermaceae is treated for Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, a detailed floristic manual for the region produced at New York Botanical Garden to provide up-to-date information on all plants that are wild or invasive from Maine and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, south to Virginia and northern Missouri. Three genera and three species grow without cultivation in the northeast, all native to the region. This contribution will support accurate identification of pest plants by botanists in the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada.