DEVELOPMENT OF CURRENT LIST 



The Fish and Wildlife Service recognized that accessory lists of 

 hydrophytes (plant species that occur in wetlands) and hydric soils 

 would need to be developed to apply the wetland classification 

 system accurately and consistently in the field. The scientific 

 names of the plant species included in the major wetland plant 

 lists and manuals were collected and merged into a single 

 computerized list with those species on the National List of 

 Scientific Plant Names (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1971) that 

 had emergent, floating, or submergent life forms. This initial 

 list of 1,626 species, completed in March 1976, was obviously 

 incomplete, and was especially deficient in plant species from the 

 western United States and the Alaska, Caribbean, and Hawaii 

 regions. Dr. Donovan Correll, Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami, 

 Florida, reviewed this initial list in 1977 and suggested many 

 additional species for inclusion. Dr. Correll 's additions were 

 combined with the initial list, and a draft list of 4,235 species 

 was developed in 1977. This draft list, although plagued by 

 problems of plant nomenclature and synonymy, was remarkably 

 complete, considering the small amount of time which had been spent 

 on its development . 



Review and refinement of this draft list has continued since 1977. 

 Initial tasks were to maintain and improve computer storage and 

 retrieval of the draft list information, align the listed species 

 with a national taxonomic treatment, and subdivide the species 

 according to their fidelity to wetlands. The importance of the 

 development of an accurate National List of Plant Species That 

 Occur in Wetlands to the Federal community and the need to 

 substantiate the occurrence of these plant species in wetlands from 

 the botanical literature led the Fish and Wildlife Service to begin 

 development of the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species Data 

 Base. This textual data base documents the taxonomy, distribution, 

 and ecology of each species based on a synthesis of almost 300 

 National and regional wetland plant and botanical manuals 

 representing the major State and regional floras. Computer storage 

 of the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species Data Base allowed 

 for the efficient maintenance of the initial National List and 

 creation of early draft regional subdivisions of the National List . 

 Data collection for the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species 

 Data Base for all plant species was completed in 1987, but 

 incorporation of this information into a single data base on the 

 National Wetlands Inventory minicomputer remains to be 

 accomplished. The species data base is presently stored on a 

 microcomputer. Information on the data base and preliminary 



