Aconitum columbianum Nutt. var. columbianum

NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
Local herbarium of thf
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.
DEPOSITED IN 1973 AT
IYhE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARBEN
/fcAeyiSL %L3; <£ . C/fAfJ fit
Aconitum noveboracense A. Gray
H. A. Gleason and Wm. J. Bonisteel
This rare species was originally discovered by A. Willard in
Chenango county, New York, prior to 1857; it was again col-
lected near Oxford, in the same county, by A. L. Coville and
F. V. Coville in 1885 and 1887. It was later found by Mr. and
Mrs. Van Brunt along the Beaverkill in Ulster County and again
along the same river by Dr. H. H. Rusby in 1891. So far as we
know, without making an exhaustive search of literature or
herbaria, these are its only known stations.
Dr. Rusby remembered clearly the details of the location
where he found the plant. With his directions in mind, we visit-
ed the banks of the Beaverkill river on August 12 and 13,1929-
and succeeded in locating possibly a hundred plants, ranging in
height from a few inches to four feet, and in condition from
young seedlings to blooming or fruiting adults. The season of
bloom was in general past, and the few flowers remaining were
mostly on lower lateral branches. Only a small fraction of the
flowers were producing seed. It is quite possible that the season
was a difficult one for the plants. Floods in 1928 had raised the
river to unprecedented heights and probably washed out many
of the rhizomes, while the exceptional drought of 1929 was cer-
tainly not favorable to them. They were also extraordinarily
difficult to find, chiefly because of the lack of flowers. We know
that we passed slowly through the best colony of them three
times before we saw any of them, and then located at least fifty
within a few feet of each other. It is gratifying to know that
they are producing viable seeds and reproducing; certainly more
than half of the plants were healthy juveniles which had not
yet bloomed.
The Beaverkill river, a clear rushing stream, flows here
through a narrow valley with a small strip of alluvial deposits
on one or both sides. This flood-plain is by no means flat, but
is frequently diversified by narrow ridges of almost pufe sand,
merely stained black by humus, rising one to three feet above
the general level and quite variable in length. These ridges
usually lie nearer the river than the bluffs, and are separated
from the bluffs by a depression which sometimes approaches a
swamp in character and almost always shows an approach to
hydi^phyTS^onc’M^IPPW'Ke abundance of Chelone glabra and
Eupatorium perfoliatum. The ridges lack these species and are
distinctly mesophytic in character. All parts of the valley are
well shaded by Acer saccharum, Acer spicatum, and other trees
and shrubs. Aconitum noveboracense lives, so far as we observed,
only on the ridges, which it shares with a dense growth of Rubus
odoratus, Monarda didyma, Arisaema triphyllum, Onoclea sen-
sibilis,Osmorhiza longistylis, Solidago flexicaulis, and unidenti-
fied species of Hydrophyllum and Thalictrum. Blooming plants
of the aconite rise approximately to the general level of these
herbs. Beneath them, and consequently in still denser shade
and subject to still greater competition for space, the seedling
aconites are mingled with Mitella diphylla, Viola scdbriuscula,
and Fragaria virginiana.
It is probable that search over other parts of the valley,
especially in the blooming season will reveal numerous other
plants of this rare species, which, however, shows no indication
of being in danger of extinction.
«s?
New York Botanical. Garden
From
HERBARIUM OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK.
02726924
I?/?/-— ST. ......__?
Aconitum noveboracense Grey ex. Coville
B. Farrell, Rutgers University, NJ, USA
February 2009
ANNOTATION LABEL
Aconitum columbianum Nutt. in T. & G«
ssp. columbianum
Det. David A. Young June 1982
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HERBARIUM
02726924