Document Type

Article

Publication Title

The Great Lakes Botanist

Abstract

Michigan’s natural landscape includes a diverse assemblage of ecosystems, among the most distinctive of which are peatlands, and more specifically, those known colloquially as “bogs.” When botanist Emma J. Cole published the Grand Rapids Flora in 1901, she included a large number of bog species documented in the greater Grand Rapids area (16 townships in two counties, an area of 585 square miles). Cole’s Flora is still the most comprehensive catalog of vascular plants found in West Michigan. This study is part of an ongoing update of Cole’s work undertaken by the Calvin University Herbarium to relocate and inventory Emma Cole’s collection localities as well as other high-quality natural landscapes in the Grand Rapids region. We compared floristic inventories recently conducted at three bogs in Kent County, all of which are located within the general area covered by Cole’s Flora, and, to our knowledge, these are the highest quality bogs remaining in this area. Comparing a comprehensive current list of bog plants from these sites with a list of bog plants from Grand Rapids Flora provides a rare opportunity to assess floristic change that has occurred in a specified group of plants within a limited geographic area over 120 years of urban and agricultural development. The Floristic Quality Assessment yielded a very high Floristic Quality Index for each of the three bogs studied, signifying that all three sites are significant components of Michigan’s native biodiversity and natural landscapes. Sørensen’s Index of Similarity indicated a strong similarity among the three bogs to each other, although slightly lower than their even stronger similarity to the historic list of bog plants derived from Cole’s Flora. The Simple Matching Similarity Index, which compares the site lists with a species pool of potential bog plants, suggests an even stronger similarity among the three bogs (ranging from 72% to 73.1%). A combined current flora of the three bogs compared to Cole’s historic list yielded an even higher similarity index of 79.3%. These findings suggest that the three extant bogs, while each exhibiting its own unique flora, have collectively retained a remarkable assemblage of native plants over the past 120 years even while West Michigan experienced significant landscape alteration.

First Page

121

Last Page

143

Publication Date

2019

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