National Plant List Changes - Joe's Review

It's that time again: barbeque, cold beverages, sun-screen, and oh, the National Wetland Plant List updates - YAY! Wait, what? Ok, some of you know that every plant species is designated an "indicator status" which basically means what type of community where the plant usually lives. An "obligate plant" (OBL) is one that loves to live in wetlands like 99% of the time. An "upland" (UPL) plant thinks obligate plants are jerks and live exclusively in uplands 99% of the time. But our regulatory agencies also assign intermediate status for those plants that are mostly found in wetlands called "facultative wet" (FACW), those that can be found in both uplands and wetlands called "facultative" (FAC), and those that prefer the drier side of life most of the time called "facultative upland" (FACU). A review board originally assigned these indicator status and each year or so, these can be changed. So what? Well, some species are deemed too wet or too dry for their original status and these can be changed! It is a federal process and yours truly has commented and provided information on many plant species over the years. So here they are for 2020. The highlighted items below are the important ones from our regional (labeled as Midwest or MW below).

Bromus nottowayanus - Glossy leaved brome grass. Swink and Rericha (2017) say this is a common grass in the western sector (of Chicagoland) but I have not seen it. The species was not listed previously (Not On List) and the final rating is FACU. Sounds good to me since most of our brome grasses like drier areas so it seems to make sense.

Hymenocallis occidentalis - Spider lilly (see picture above). Swink and Rericha (2017) do not even have it listed and I had to go look it up on the USDA database. It is a cool looking plant! I think I saw it once for sale at a local nursery so

I really do not see it that often if at all. It originally was listed as OBL - obligate wetland and changed all the way to FAC, or facultative. That is a BIG change but technically remains a "wetland" plant as areas dominated by FAC plants can still be wetlands. My advice, if you see this plant, run because it looks like something that StarTrek had on one episode.

Polymnia canadensis - Pale leafcup. Swink and Rericha (2017) indicate that the plant is uncommon in our region and do not show an instance in Lake County. Hey, by the way, did you know that our plant i.d. bible mentioned above also lists their feelings on the wetness preferences? Yes, they sure do. Well the NWPL is the regulatory standard for wetland delineations so we as wetland practitioners follow this list but it is always good to check how others list the species. And here is one that is different. The NWPL lists the pale leafcup as FACU or on the drier side and Swink and Rericha list it as FAC. That is pretty close so no argument here. The cool thing is that Swink and Rericha also list plants that the species associates with most commonly. Based on the list they provide, I am thinking that Swink is probably more correct with the status but as I stated above, the NWPL rules.

Verbena brasilensis and V. incompta - Representing the less common vervains in our area. The vervain is an interesting genus as the species under the genus can represent very dry and then very wet environments. And to make it even more interesting, many of the species interbreed and can make interesting crosses. So the listing for these two species is probably correct.

Bottom line - I hope this helped you understand a little more about what goes into how plants get - and change - their indicator status. It is more complex that most folks realize. So if you are curious, or just want to know a little more, just let me know.

- have a happy summer, joe