PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 2: Forest Ecology
Monday, August 8, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Phenological patterns among understory plant species of northwestern Connecticut.
Tessier, Jack*,1, 1 Biology Department, New Britain, CT, 06053
ABSTRACT- Understory plant communities in northeastern US forests encompass a range of phenological categories. After discovering an unexpected pattern in Oxalis acetosella, I began monitoring a suite of species from various phenological categories in a mixed coniferous/deciduous forest in northwestern Connecticut to collect specific data regarding leaf longevity. Preliminary results yield intriguing patterns including: Polystichum acrostichoides keeping old fronds longer than two other wintergreen species of Dryopteris, Polypodium virginianum exhibiting extensive overlap in leaf cohorts, Mitchella repens having entire shoots die suddenly, Trillium erectum and Viola rotundifolia emerging together in April but senescing at different times, and Oxalis acetosella exhibiting leaf emergence at multiple times but less continuously under this coniferous canopy than in its seasonal-green pattern documented previously under a hardwood canopy in the Catskill Mountains. These results lead to new questions about leaf longevity among species and the ecological implications of the differences among species of similar phenological strategy.
Key words: leaf longevity, herbaceous plant species, phenology, Algonquin State Forest