Plants of Lanark County, Ontario--2009 Edition   by David J. White
2009 Edition Now Available! If you are interested in which native and non-native plants grow wild in Lanark County, how common they are, and where they occur, you've come to the right site. As the map on the right shows, Lanark County is found in southeastern Ontario (Canada). The 2009 revised edition of the Plants of Lanark County, Ontario is an annotated checklist which presents the 1289 taxa (species, subspecies, varieties, and hybrids) of native and non-native vascular plants known to occur in the county. Vascular plants are those which have vessels or ducts to transport fluids. Included are trees, shrubs, herbaceous flowering plants (annual and perennial), ferns, clubmosses, and horsetails, but not mosses, lichens, or algae. The 2009 update is a relatively limited revision of the 2008 edition. No new species have been added; however there are additional records of rare, sparse, and  uncommon species, resulting in status designation changes for quite a few plants. Nomenclature has been updated in several areas. Finally, a new section on Significant Areas has been added to highlight 17 areas with exceptional plant diversity and rare plant concentrations. This new section is also available on the Significant Areas page of the site. One other new page has been added to the site: Rare Plant Photos will show a selection of photos of plants that are rare in the county. This page is under construction and photos will be added as the season progresses. For each species on the checklist, scientific name, common name, and status within the county are given. Brief habitat notes are given for all rare, sparse, and uncommon plants. Locations are given for all rare and sparse species. For a non-native plant to be included on the list, it must have been found growing in the county without the aid of cultivation. Although there are a number of garden plants and agricultural crops on the list, all were found where they had spread on their own and were surviving untended. Since the complete plant list is rather long (100 pages), I am making it available as a PDF file which you can download from the Download Plant List page and view using Adobe Reader® which most internet users have. If you do not, this software can be downloaded (for free) from the Adobe website. If you're not sure whether an "annotated checklist" might be of interest, look at a Sample Page first. A county checklist can be a useful aid to plant identification when used along with floras and field guides that cover a larger geographical area. By highlighting significant native species (those classed as rare or sparse), the list should be a useful reference for environmental impact studies and natural area evaluations. It is hoped that making this list available will encourage the recording of new species, the reporting of additional records of rare and sparse plants, and the refining of the status designations. Such input and feedback will contribute to the New Records page and, eventually, to an updated version of the checklist. If you think you have a new species to add, an additional record of a rare or sparse plant, or any comments at all on the project, I hope to hear from you! New Subject! On a completely separate topic, if you have an interest in Red Foxes, check out the new Red Fox Journal section with stories and lots of photos of young foxes. Site last updated 20 June 2009 © David J. White 2009		Home Project Background Sample Page Download Plant List Significant Areas Rare Plant Photos New Records Links About the Author Contact the Author Red Fox Journal