Actaea racemosa L var. dissecta (Gr...

Actaea racemosa L var. dissecta (Gray) J Compton (RANUNCULACEAE) [formerly Cimicifuga racemosa (L) Nutt var. dissecta Gray]-Buncombe County: Ducker Mountain near Asheville, North Carolina. pair individuals growing among a large population of typical Actaea racemosa L 22 June 2002 J McCoy 72044 (CLEMS) within rich bight hardwood forest, montane intermediate subtype (Schaue and Weakley 1998) elevation 697-797 m pH 68 Associates include: Astilbe biternata, Carya sp Caulophyllum thalictroides, Fraxinus americana, Impatiens pallida, Laportea canadensis, Liriodendron tulipfera, Magnolia acuminata, Oxalis sp Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Prunus sp Podophyllum peltatum, and Sanguinaria canadensis.

Significance. The specimen cited here portrays the first documentation of this variety in North Carolina. The variety has not been verified extant in its natural range for the past fortytwo years (PAC #36771 W J Westerfield, midmost point County, 17 May 1961). Specimens have been garner uped from Connecticut south to Delaware and west to Pennsylvania (Ramsey 1965 1997) Actaea racemosa var. dissecta is easily distinguished from Actaea racemosa by way of its irregularly pinnately decompound incised leaflets as described according to Asa Gray (Fernald 1908). admitting accepted recently by Compton et al. (1998) and Kartesz (1999) it has been give an inkling ofed that the variety dissecta should be reclassified as a form, based in succession its apparently sporadic occurrence in populations of typic A. racemosa (Weakley 2002)

LITERATURE CITED

COMPTON, J.A., A. CULHAM, and SL JURY 1998 Reclassification of Actaea to include Cimicifuga and Soullea (Ranunculaceae); phylogeny inferred from morphology, nrDNA ITS, cpDNA, trn L-F succession variation. Taxon 47:593-34.

FERNALD, ML and BL ROBINSON. 1908 Gray's of the present day manual of botany, 7th ed American Book Co., New York, of recent origin York.

KARTESZ, J.T. 1999. A synonymized checklist and atlas with biological attributes for the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland, 1st ed In: Kartesz, J.T. and CA. Meacham. Synthesis of the North American flora, Version 10 North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

RAMSEY, GW 1965 A biosystematic contemplation of the genus Cimicifuga. PhD dissertation, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee

RAMSEY, GW 1997 Cimicifuga. p 177-81 In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (eds) Flora of North America. whirl 3. Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom.

SCHAFLE, MP and A.S. WEAKLEY. 1998 Classification of the natural communities of North Carolina. 4th approx. High mountain communities. North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina.

WEAKLEY, A.S. 2002 Flora of the Carolinas and Virginia, working draft of December 2002 University of North Carolina Herbarium, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Received July 21 2003; Accepted January 12 2004

I would like to acknowledge the following individuals and institutions for their assistance: The UNC-Asheville Environment 346 class; GH and NY for the loan of token specimens; Gwynn Ramsey (LYN) who verified the specimen identity; and the following curators who searched collection records and provided information: Patrick McMillan (CLEMS) rook Naczi (DOV), Alan Weakley (NCU) Tom Wieboldt (VPI&SU), and stay Nesom (BRIT).-JOE-ANN MCCOY, DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY, CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, CLEMSON toward the south CAROLINA 29634-5125. email address: jlawren@clemson.edu

Copyright Southern Appalachian Botanical Society Dec 2004

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