A Second Collection of Psilotum nudum from Texas

Abstract

A SECOND COLLECTION OF PSILOTUM NUDUM FROM TEXAS.-The Whisk Fern was first recorded in Texas by Donovan S. Correll (Wrightia 2: 163-165. 1960) as a collection part a single plant from Hardin County, two miles south Saratoga. Lance Rosier, who led Correll to this location, assured him of other localities in the Big Thicket. But Rosier, now deceased, never disclosed any additional localities. While conducting an inventory bog habitats in Freestone County, in the company Glen Chervenka the Soil Conversation Service, I discovered a population Psilotum ntiidiun consisting ten sterile, immature plants 8-12 cm tall. All were found growing within a three square meter area on a seepage slope at the edge a wet, marshy meadow along a tributary Mustang Creek about 22 km west Oakwood. Two specimens, L. N. Lodwick 216 (MO, TEX), were collected, and verification was by Dr. H. C. Bold, the University Texas. The specimens were growing in a wet, peaty humus 5-8 cm deep underlain by a coarse, white sand which has been mapped as a member the Queen's City Formation (Geological Atlas Texas, Palestine Sheet, February 1968). The Psilottun was associated with a dense canopy Post Oak (Quercus stellata), Water Oak (Q. nigra), and Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera). Sphagnum subsecundlam was an intermittent ground cover in suitable microhabitats, but due to the dense shade, little ground cover occurred nearby other than the Sphaglnum. The only disturbance to the area is grazing by cattle, and it is unlikely that any other disturbance is imminent. This collection Psilotumn is the first recorded for the Post Oak Savannah region Texas and represents a disjunction approximately 200 km to the northwest Correll's collection, which is in the Pineywoods east Texas.Laurence N. Lodwick, Resource Mcanagement Section, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, A lstin, TX 78701.