The Vascular Flora of Lee County, Texas

Abstract

Lee County is located in the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie vegetation areas of east-central Texas and encompasses 635 square miles (ca. 405,000 acres). A floristic survey of the vascular plants of Lee County, Texas, was conducted from November 2002 through March 2006 as a requirement for the Master's Degree by the author in the Plant Biology Graduate Program at The University of Texas at Austin. The county was revisited in the summers of 2015 and 2017 to update information for publication. The physical and biotic settings, vegetational history, and previous collecting efforts are outlined. The checklist contains voucher collections from the present study as well as additional records from the TEX/LL, TAES, TAMU and BAYLU herbaria. The annotated checklist includes 732 species and infraspecific taxa, representing 427 genera and 122 families. The most species-rich families are Asteraceae, Poaceae, Fabaceae, Cyperaceae, and Euphorbiaceae. No federally or state listed rare species were documented, although at least two species of conservation concern were collected within the county. Native species comprise about 89% of the county flora, and include 20 species endemic to Texas. The phytogeographic position of Lee County is discussed, with a prominent feature being its position at the extreme western edge of the distributions of many species typical of the southeastern U. S. flora.