Vascular flora and rare plant modeling of the Walls of Jericho Forever Wild Tract, Jackson County, Alabama

A floristic inventory in the Walls of Jericho Forever Wild Tract was conducted during the 2021-2023 growing seasons. The Walls of Jericho Forever Wild Tract is a 5,142 ha protected area in Jackson County, Alabama. In total, 32 collection trips were made for a total of ~56 field days, resulting in 709 species, representing 372 genera in 125 families. Forty species of conservation concern were documented, including 12 S1 and 17 S2 species. Eighty-five (12%) of these species were non-native. The top three most represented families were Asteraceae (14%), Poaceae (9%) and Cyperaceae (7%). Additionally, we modeled suitable habitat using MaxEnt to survey for two federally listed species; Apios priceana (Fabaceae) and Clematis morefieldii (Ranunculaceae). While no occurrences were found, the model successfully delineated suitable habitat in which several other rare species were found, such as Blephelia subnuda (Lamiaceae), Asplenium ruta-mariana (Aspleniaceae), and Viburnum bracteatum (Viburnaceae).

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Billings, Garrett

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shaw, Joey
• Hunt, Nyssa; Hossain, A.K.M. Azad
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Plants--Jackson County (Ala.)--Identification

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/848

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2025