Biodiversity of plants on conservation land in North Alabama

Lessons learned from a study of Poales at Bloucher Ford Nature Preserve, Madison County

Abstract

Alabama is a hotspot for diversity in the United States, but very little land is under public protection with many conservation areas under management of local land trusts. This study provides the results of the first floristic inventory (focused on the Order Poales) on a land trust property in North Alabama before and after a change in habitat management regime that identifies over 70 species of grasses, sedges, and rushes with 29 new and updated contributions to vascular flora records. The results outlined in this study demonstrate the high species richness possible to find within a small nature preserve, the need for changes in management that may be necessary to complete identification and inventory of species, and the necessity for more local vascular plant studies to reduce gaps in local conservation organization knowledge as well as state and regional plant records that could lead to flawed analyses for studies or models that rely on that data.