Vulnerable Plants

Monday, May 5, 2008

Ozone pollution not only affects pollinators but also directly harms many plants and flowers, according to a recent report.

Gary M. Lovett of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Timothy H. Tear of the Nature Conservancy listed a wide variety of East Coast vegetation that is considered vulnerable to air pollution in a paper titled "Effects of Atmospheric Deposition on Biological Diversity in the Eastern United States."

Tear said the effects of ozone on ecosystems "have been underestimated by society and conservation, as well." The list of vulnerable plants they found on National Park Service or Fish and Wildlife land includes:

· Evening primrose

· Huckleberry

· Loblolly pine

· Jack pine

· Pitch pine

· Table-mountain pine

· Monterey pine

· Jeffrey pine

· Red elderberry

· Blue elderberry

· Yellow poplar

· Tall milkweed

· Mugwort

· Virginia creeper

· Quaking aspen

· American sycamore

· Black cherry

· Choke cherry

· Ponderosa pine

· Thimbleberry

· Cutleaf coneflower

· Sassafras

· Goldenrod

· Speckled alder

· American hazelnut

· Sweet mock

· Spreading dogbane

· Yellow buckeye

-- Juliet Eilperin