Date of Award
Spring 5-7-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS) in Biology
Department
Biology
Committee Chair
Dr. Jimmy Triplett
Abstract
Cleburne County is located in Northeast Alabama and measures 145,298 hectares. Approximately one-third of the county lies within the Talladega National Forest, more than any other county covered by the Talladega National Forest. The county has two physiographic regions: Piedmont and Ridge and Valley. A floristic survey of Cleburne County, Alabama, was conducted on public and private lands from 2014– 2020. Sporadic field collections took place from March 2014 – April 2019, with extensive fieldwork conducted from May 2019 – October 2020. A total of 1,302 vascular plant taxa are reported, including 266 taxa not previously documented for the county. This floristic study added 67 new genera, 10 new families, and 2 new orders to the existing flora. The total taxa reported represent 594 genera from 168 families. 60 native taxa have state or global ranking due to rarity. 25% (15 taxa) of the species of special concern documented are newly reported for Cleburne County. Approximately 24% (317 taxa) of the flora are considered non-native to Alabama. The five largest families were Asteraceae (176 taxa), Poaceae (128 taxa), Cyperaceae (87 taxa), Fabaceae (78 taxa), and Rosaceae (46 taxa).