Chairman – Wayne Ferren
Committee – Bill Olson, Gerry Moore
The Manual: The Flora of New Jersey Project was founded in 2004 to further the understanding, appreciation, and preservation of the flora of New Jersey and to create publications that facilitate these goals. The Manual of the Flora of New Jersey is one anticipated product of the FNJ Project.
Click Here for complete sections to the Manual of the Flora of New Jersey.
Background: New Jersey is characterized by a rich and diverse flora of over 2000 native and introduced vascular plant species from seven physiographic provinces, including various unique ecosystems such as the New Jersey Pine Barrens. This flora, investigated and collected for over 300 years, has been the focus of many notable botanists beginning in with John Bartram (1699-1777), who was appointed botanist to King George III in 1765, and Peter Kalm (1715-1779), who from 1748-1751 explored eastern North America and collected plants for Linnaeus. In spite of the importance of New Jersey’s flora, there has never been a manual that documents the state’s rich botanical resources. A number of important works have been produced during the past century by local individuals including N. L. Britton’s Catalogue of Plants Found in New Jersey (1889), W. Stone’s The Plants of New Jersey with Especial Reference to the Flora of the Pine Barrens and Geographic Distribution of the Species (1911), M. Y. Hough’s New Jersey Wild Plants (1983), and J. D. Montgomery and D. E. Fairbrothers’ New Jersey Ferns and Fern Allies (1992). These contributions, however, did not include keys, treated only a portion of the state, or treated only a portion of the flora, and all are sufficiently out of date to require the use of additional references. Anderson’s Checklist of the Plants of New Jersey (2003) is the most recent work of note, but includes only a list of species organized by family, with scientific and common names included for each entry. This latter list is in part a compilation from other sources including The Plants Database (USDA and NRCS 2003 – 2006). Checklists of New Jersey plant species also can be derived from this latter work and from The Synonymized Checklist and Atlas with Biological Attributes for the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (Kartesz 1999).
Purpose: The purpose of the Manual of the Flora of New Jersey is to provide a guide to the vascular plant species that includes (1) keys to the families, genera, species, and infraspecific taxa; (2) current nomenclature and selected synonyms; and (3) information on habitat, physiographic affinity, wetland and rarity status, and nativity. Detailed descriptions of species and subspecies are not included in the Manual to save space and because this information is readily available elsewhere in regional manuals such as M. L. Fernald (1950) Gray’s Manual of Botany, A Handbook of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Central and Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada; H. A. Gleason (1952) New Britton & Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada; and H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist (1991) Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada; as well as the continuing efforts of the Flora of North America (e.g., FNA 2003).
References Cited:
Anderson, K. 2003. A Checklist of the Plants of New Jersey. Woodbury, NJ.
Britton, N. L. 1889. Catalogue of Plants Found in New Jersey. Final report of the State Geologist, Vol. II, pp. 25-619. Minerology, Botany, Zoology. Geological Survey of New Jersey.
Fernald. M. L. 1950. Gray’s Manual of Botany, 8th Ed. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York. 1632 p. [Corrected Printing, 1970]
FNA Editorial Committee. 2003. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Vol. 4, Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1. Oxford University Press, New York.
Gleason, H. A. 1952. The New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Vols. 1-3. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY.
Gleason, H. A. and Cronquist, A. 1991. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada, Second Ed. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY. 910 p.
Hough, M. Y. 1983. New Jersey Wild Plants. Harmony Press, Harmony, NJ.
Kartesz, J. T. 1999. A Synonymized Checklist and Atlas with Biological Attributes for the Vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. First Edition. In: Kartesz, J. T. and C. A. Meacham. Synthesis of the North American Flora. Version 1.0. North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC.
Montgomery, J. D. and D. E. Fairbrothers. 1992. New Jersey Ferns and Fern Allies. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ. 293 p.
Stone, W. 1911. The Plants of Southern New Jersey with Especial Reference to the Flora of the Pine Barrens and the Geographic Distribution of the Species. Part II, Report of the New Jersey State Museum 1910. Trenton, NJ. p. 25-828 + CXXIX plates.
USDA and NRCS. 2003-2006. The PLANTS database. Website http:// http://plants.usda.gov
Click Here for an outline of the first chapter of the manual.
Click Here for a map of NJ’s Vegetation regions.