Life Forms of the Flora at Hempstead Plains, New York, and a Comparison with Four Other Sites

Abstract

STALTER, R. (Department of Biological Sciences, St. John's University, Jamaica, NY 11439), DWIGHT T. KINcAm (Department of Biological Sciences, Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, NY 10468) AND Eiuc E. LAMoNT (New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458). Life forms of the flora at Hempstead Plains, New York, and a comparison with four other sites. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 118: 191-194 1991.-The 171 taxa of vascular plants of Hempstead Plains, Long Island, New York, were arranged into a Raunkiaer life form spectrum. Over eighty percent of the species have their perennating tissue protected during the unfavorable part of the year (hemicryptophytes, 38%; therophytes, 25%; cryptophytes, 20%). The Hempstead Plains spectrum was compared to spectra developed from species lists for an oak woods, Cold Spring Harbor, New York; Konza Prairie, Kansas; the South Carolina Sand Hills; and the North Carolina Piedmont. The life form spectrum at Hempstead Plains is statistically homogeneous (G-tests) with that of the Konza Prairie, and highly significantly different from the oak woods in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, the South Carolina Sand Hills, and the Piedmont of North Carolina. Based on Raunkiaer life form categories, the Hempstead Plains community is a true prairie.