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Re: Indicator plants



Frits v/d Laan (f.vd.laan@inter.nl.net) wrote:
: I would like to get any information about plants that are known to 
: indicate at a early stage anything to do with there environment,
: shortage or to much of nutrician N, P, K, Mg etc.  or are sensitive for
: or atract insects earlier than most plants.


It seems that most plants (if not all) could be considered indicators of
"anything to do with their environment."  It might be helpful and more
manageable to pick one environmental gradient and attempt to compile a
list of indicator plants for that one feature.  

For wetland plants in Illinois, a list has been compiled categorizing
these plants be their likelihood of being found in a wetland.  The scale
ranges from UPL (upland: plant rarely occurs in a wetland) to OBL
(obligate: plant rarely occurs outside a wetland).  The Floristic Quality
Assessment was developed by John Taft et al. at the Illinois Natural
History Survey located at the University of Illinois in Champaign,
Illinois.  

Christina Bolas
Wetland Ecologist
Illinois Natural History Survey



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