Recently I was looking at species of Rosa in the New York Flora Atlas. When I looked at the genus I noticed that the genus map had Cortland County as the only county without a record of any species of Rosa. That made me curious to find out if any other common genera had been recorded in all but a few counties. I decided to look through Mitchell’s 1997 checklist and pick out common genera, ones that had one or more pages of species listed for them. I looked in the atlas at each one and recorded those that had fewer than 5 counties where no species had been recorded in the atlas. The genera are listed below in taxonomic order followed by the counties that have no records.
Thalictrum – Wayne
Ulmus – Allegany, Seneca
Quercus – Herkimer, Cortland
Betula – Seneca, Schuyler, Cortland, Chenango
Silene – Broome, Allegany, Wyoming
Stellaria – Franklin, Steuben, Wyoming, Orleans
Rumex – Herkimer
Hypericum – Schuyler
Cardamine – Cortland, Sullivan, Schoharie
Lysimachia – Cortland, Orleans
Ribes – Broome, Schuyler, Ontario, Orleans
Amelanchier – Livingston
Geum – Wayne, Seneca, Broome, Franklin
Potentilla – Cortland, Seneca, Wyoming, Orleans
Rosa – Cortland
Trifolium – Herkimer, Schenectady, Cortland, Seneca
Acer – Cortland
Asclepias – Cortland, Wayne
Scutellaria – Schuyler, Cortland, Broome, Schoharie
Veronica – Orleans
Galium – Orleans
Lonicera – Wayne, Wyoming
Bidens – Broome, Schuyler
Potamogeton – Broome, Schoharie
Scirpus – Wyoming, Orleans
Muhlenbergia – Broome
Panicum – Franklin
Trillium – Kings
Cypripedium – Fulton, Seneca, Orleans
Cortland County appeared most often in this list with Orleans County second. I think they would be good candidates for additional flora work. Maybe you can find other less common genera that also have gaps in just a few counties. If you are out collecting plants in some of these counties this summer, make sure you collect these common genera to fill the gaps in the atlas. Happy botanizing! – Steve Young
Genus Rosa map with the Cortland County gap.