OVERVIEW

This checklist is an update of the flora of the Mount Holyoke Range (K. B. Searcy. 2008. Vascular Flora of the Greater Mount Holyoke Range, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts, Special Publication, New England Botanical Club, Cambridge, MA). In addition to an annotated checklist, the published flora includes information on land use, geology, soils, climate, vegetation, plant communities and a brief history of botanical collection in the Range. The 2009 update made the following changes: Ambrosia trifida, Asclepias purpurescens,Echinocystis lobata, and Epilobium angustifolium were added, and Solidago macrophylla, a specimen with no recent collections, was dropped from the flora because of a reinterpretation of the collection locality. Between 2009 and spring 2011, the following species were added:Allium tricoccum*, Asclepias exaltata, Carex sprengelii, Dicentra canadensis, Doellingera umbellata, Moehringia lateriflora*, Ranunculus repens, Salix atrocinerea (found by A. Zinovjev and I. Kadis), Solidago puberula, and Vernonia noveboracensis. (*found by Scott Rasmussen) A population of Platanthera psycodes last observed in 1915 was re-located. Herbarium specimens of Ranunculus pensylvanicus, Picea rubens, and Carex tuckermanii were added to the historic record. The total number of species recorded for the Range is now 876, 837 of which have current known populations.

Most of the taxa are documented by recent collections deposited at the University of Massachusetts Herbarium (MASS). Thirty-seven species are known only from specimens in the following herbaria: Amherst College (AC), Gray Herbarium (GH), New England Botanical Club Herbarium (NEBC), Smith College Herbarium (SCHN), and the University of Massachusetts Herbarium (MASS). Searches for these species are on going.

For the purposes of the flora, the Mount Holyoke Range is broadly defined. It includes primarily state or other public land between Route 47 at Connecticut River on the west and Harris Mountain Rd. on the east. The northern boundary is Chmura Rd. in Hadley or Bay Rd. in Amherst. The southern boundary is approximately Bachelor Rd. in Granby and Elmer Brook in South Hadley.

Nomenclature follows Gleason, H.A. and A. Cronquist (1991) or "The Flora of North America" Vols. 2-5 and 19-26.

For more information or for a copy of the flora contact: Tristram Seidler, email: tseidler@bio.umass.edu