Noteworthy Collections: Tennessee

Abstract

Macrothelypteris torresiana (Gaudich) Ching (THELYPTERIDACEAE)—Gibson County: Low, disturbed woods of loess soil within the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province of western Tennessee, north end of Milan Army Ammunition Plant, USGS Atwood 7.59 Topographic Quadrangle, Lat: 35.940uN, Long -088.704uW, 14 May 2007, Roger McCoy s.n. with Todd Crabtree (TENN) (2 specimens). Significance. Macrothelypteris torresiana is a native of tropical Asia. In the United States, it was first collected out of cultivation from Seminole County, Florida over 100 years ago (Leonard 1972). By the end of the 1970s, the species was documented from the Atlantic or Gulf Coastal Plains of eight southeastern states (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, SC, and TX) spanning as far west as Newton County, Texas (just west of Louisiana) and as far north as Marshall County, Mississippi (just south of Tennessee) (Leonard 1972, Taylor and Johnson 1979). In 1999, the first collection of naturalized plants in Tennessee was made from the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province (Beck and Van Horn 2007). Other collections outside of the Coastal Plain are from the Ridge and Valley Province of southwestern Virginia (Virginia Botanical Associates 2008; T.F. Wieboldt, Associate Curator Massey Herbarium (VPI), pers. comm.), and the Piedmont of South Carolina (Horn 2006). This is the first report of the non-native Macrothelypteris torresiana from the Coastal Plain of Tennessee. Given the species’ presence from several Southeastern Coastal Plain locations, recent documentation from other physiographic provinces and stations further north, it appears that this non-native species is not only securely naturalized, but spreading.