Notes on the Provenance of Some Eastern Wetland Species Disjunct in Western North America

Abstract

ZIKA, P. F (Herbarium, Dept. of Botany, Box 355325, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-5325). Notes on the provenance of some eastern wetland species disjunct in western North America. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 130:43-46. 2003.-Wetland plants native to eastern North America commonly invade farms cultivating cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon). Twenty-two of these taxa have established disjunct populations in the Pacific Northwest, on wet soils in cranberry farms. Fourteen disjunct populations are, at present, entirely restricted to cranberry fields within Oregon, Washington, or British Columbia, and were apparently unintentionally transferred to the west coast with commercial cuttings of cranberry plants. This is a plausible explanation for the origins of several other eastern taxa invading undisturbed wetlands in the Pacific Northwest, adjacent to agricultural areas (e.g., Lysimachia terrestris, Glyceria canadensis, Juncus canadensis, and Hypericum boreale).