L1BRARV 

 DEN 



TORREYA 



Vol. 35 September-October, 1935 V . 5 



Plants from the estuary of the Hudson River 

 1 Iknry K. Svenson 



Early in the fall of 1933 Mr. Max Elwert brought me speci- 

 mens of Plant-ago cordata Lam. collected in the Hudson River at 

 Red Hook, Dutchess County, with some photographs of the 

 habitat of this remarkable species. 



Plantago cordata is primarily a plant of the Mississippi valley 

 and the Great Lakes region, its only record from the New York 

 area, according to Taylor (Fl. Vic. N. Y. 568, 1915), being "an 

 old collection made at Mattewan, New York, many years ago." 

 Torrey (Fl. N. Y. 2: 15. 1843) however, cites it from "Manhat- 

 tanville on the Island of New York, and near Fishkill in 

 Dutchess County." Mr. Elwert first took me to the south bay of 

 Crueger Island on September 21, 1933, where a number of 

 plants grew on a protected gravel beach. This colony was said 

 to be small in comparison with the hundreds of plants to be seen 

 at Stony Creek, about a mile to the northward, and a later visit 

 to this interesting locality showed large plants and innumerable 

 seedlings covering the rocky shores where they were submerged 

 at high tide level. Plantago cordata has the outward appearance 

 of a robust P. major, but is easily differentiated by the thick 

 fleshy roots and the attractive appearance of the purplish 

 flowering spikes which appear in the spring. Mr. Elwert and I 

 again visited Rocky Creek on October 11, 1934, fortified this 

 time by a pair of rubber boots, and despite the damage of 

 early frosts we found the Plantago and many other interesting 

 plants of the tidal shores in good condition. Plantago cordata 

 was also collected by me at Catskill, Greene County, in 1934 

 (Svenson no. 6275). Like Samol us floribundns and several other 

 species of wide distribution in the interior, Plantago cordata 

 is evidently a strictly estuarine plant at the northeastern limit 



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