200 ^ The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XI, No. 1, 



A FLORISTIC SURVEY OF ORCHARD ISLAND.* 



Freda Detmers. 



In the development of a floristic survey of Buckeye Lake, it 

 has been found advantageous to study in detail the flora, on an 

 ecological basis, of certain typical areas. The banks of the lake 

 are in large part artificial ; marshes which have fonned in shallow 

 water have been destroyed through dredging, and the earth has 

 been walled up with wood, stone and concrete. These alterations 

 have entirely destroyed the former natural succession of plants, 

 as they have suddenly introduced new edaphic conditions which 

 give rise to new biotic relations. The building of docks and 

 cottages has also largely interfered with the fonner vegetation. 

 Other areas not thus disturbed remain in much the same condition 

 as that which developed with the formation of the lake. 



Orchard or Well's Island is a good example of an undisturbed 

 area and also of one in which changes have taken place. It is one 

 of a group of four wooded islands situated in the southwest portion 

 of the old reservoir and close to the south shore. These islands 

 were elevations in the Big vSwamp of which Buckeye Lake is the 

 successor, and were high enough to escape inundation, when the 

 swam]) was converted into the reservoir in 1S32, and later, when 

 the addition of the new reservoir, in 1830, occasioned the raising 

 of the water level an additional four feet. The highest portions of 

 these islands remain above water at the standard or high water 

 level, which is twenty-three inches above the normal. They bear 

 large forest trees, some of which are twenty-eight inches in 

 diameter. 



Orchard island is the largest of these. It has an area of 2.95 

 acres and is irregular in shape with the longest diameter from the 

 southeast to the northwest. It lies about 200 feet from the south 

 shore of the lake and is connected on the west by a marsh with 

 State Journal Island. The entire surface has been apportioned 

 into lots with an undivided area of common ground at the foot of 

 the public dock, a narrow marginal area, and one in the center of 

 the island. There are now, October, 1910, eight cottages and five 

 docks. 



Sixteen years ago Mr. Wells leased the entire island, cleared 

 the center and planted peach trees. His orchard must not have 

 prospered as not one living peach tree remains today. This area 

 is now covered with young forest trees; Ulmus americana, Hicoria 

 minima, H. ovata, Fraxinus nigra, F. americana, Tilia americana, 

 and others 



* Contribution from the Botanical Laboratory of Ohio State University, 

 58. 



