supplied a listing of synonyms linked to the accepted names, and updated the 

 regional distribution of each species. The Soil Conservation Service list was 

 selected as the taxonomic standard in order to facilitate the eventual 

 correlation of the National List of Plant Species That Occur in Wetlands with 

 the Hvdric Soils of the United States (U.S. Department of Agriculture 1987). 

 Copies of the National List of Scientific Plant Names (1982) are available from 

 the State offices of the Soil Conservation Service. 



A wetland fidelity rating system was created during the initial development of 

 the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species Data Base. Early coding of verbatim 

 habitat from the botanical manuals for a wide variety of plant species indicated 

 that an obvious separation of obligate (restricted to wetlands) and facultative 

 (not restricted to wetlands) species could be made. Further refinement led to 

 subdivision of the facultative category into three subcategories, with a range 

 of percent occurrences in wetland versus nonwetland applied to each subcategory 

 to enhance user understanding and consistent application. 



The ecological information obtained from the botanical manuals during data 

 collection for the development of the Annotated National Wetland Plant Species 

 Data Base led to the identification and addition to the National List of many 

 additional species for which at least one manual reported the species occurring 

 in an obvious wetland site. The National List had increased as a result of this 

 process to 5,244 species in 1982, 6,042 species in 1986, and presently is 

 composed of 6,728 plant species. 



