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 formed 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 former 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 Swamp of which Buckeye Lake is the 
successor, and were high enough to escape inundation, when the 
swamp was converted into the reservoir in 1832, 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. 
