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Featured Image: Korean White Forsythia or 미선나무 (Mi-seon-na-mu) , Abeliophyllum distichum,[14] with glowing red leaves surrounded by other ornamentals in autumn at the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens of the UW-Arboretum. An ornamental shrub that is on the endangered species list, and is one of the many unique species endemic to the Korean Peninsula [15].
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Top (Western hemisphere in June (left) and December (right)), Bottom (Eastern Hemisphere …) [1a]
Our planet Earth’s terrestrial and aquatic environments are inhabited by plant life. When we look at each environment, we generate a list of organisms that are present. Humans have been conducting these simple surveys since ancient times, and proof is in our world languages. As an example, the ancient chiseled Ogham alphabet found on stones in Ireland is believed to be based on the trees that once inhabited the region [1] [2] [3].
As humans began to travel intercontinentally and record their observations, mapping how plants are distributed becomes important. In addition to their physiology, plant names change across the cultural landscape, confusing their origin. Due to human migrations, unrelated plants can share similar names. The hope of Linnaeus was to clarify this confusion by popularizing the use of binomial scientific names.
Mapping plants and deciding the boundaries between species is still a difficult and unclear task. Since the 1990s, one of the leading catalogs of plant life in North America excluded Mexico. Many plants, at a species, genus and family level, are distributed across national borders. Language barriers may cause botanists to exclude countries that do not belong to the same political, cultural or linguistic sphere. One example is the glacial remnants of maples in Mexico. Several distinct isolated species exist, and some species extend throughout the continent [4][5]. These challenges may provide new thresholds for scientists to discover unknown connections between different lands. Genetic studies will need to be conducted to determine whether species that were once thought to be different could be classified as the same.
Boxelder trees are a curious case of distrubition and classification. The trees flowers look like other maple flowers, but its leaves don’t. It grows aggressively in the understory of forests, causing many to classify it as an invasive plant. The tree has no singular common name in Spanish, despite growing in Mexico. Instead it is known by its name in the indigenous language of Nahuatl, acezintle. In Spanish, it is either referred to by its native name, or called Arce de hojas de fresno (Ash-leaved maple), or negundo, a latinization of a Sanskrit name of many plants in India [6], one of which bears the scientific name Vitex negundo.
After generations of surveying, we have maps at our disposal that approximate the distribution of plant species across the surface of the Earth [7]. The patterns of these distributions all share a unique story that requires devoted study. Ultimately, the source of these distribution patterns relates to a plant’s reproductive strategy.
A reproductive strategy incorporates the physical characteristics, or the anatomy of the plant, and how it relates to its environment. After the popularization of Darwin’s work, many scientists began to notice this key-and-lock phenomena in nature, where a plant’s reproductive anatomy, its flowers, are symbiotically connected to another life form.
There are many instances where a plant’s reproductive strategy is intertwined with active inorganic processes like the wind or the rain. In addition, there are other factors involved that limit a plant’s distribution such as a geographical boundary, a cataclysmic event, a persistent disease, and excessive predation.
Plant distributions also take on a new dimension when considering how humans have impacted their dispersal. In many cases, unintentional and intentional plant introductions can alter an ecosystem and induce collateral damages. Cases of these events are studied with great detail on isolated islands where introductions of plants and their consequences can be easily monitored [9].
Large migratory events in human history such as the colonization of the Americas by European empires and the subsequent repopulation contribute to many cases of intended plant introduction, where a plant with a specific use in Europe was introduced to an American farmstead. Plant introductions and human disruptions predate these events and can be observed in pre-Columbian America. Examples of plant distribution modification by pre-Colombian cultures includes the use of tree seeds in Dice in Bowl Games [10], and purposeful introduction of regional species into the gardens of Chapultepec in ancient Tenochtitlan [11].
Certain introduced species have the capacity disrupt complex relationships in plant communities such as prairies, forests, and aquatic environments like rivers and lakes. Plants that cause harm to the environment are regulated. Introduced ornamental trees like the Asian Callery Pear, Pyrus calleryana, have been difficult for North American farmers to manage [12]. Not all introduced plants are considered invasive, and not all invasive plants are introduced. There are some plants native to North America such as the vine plant Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, which can smother plants in garden settings and is considered invasive in some states [13].
Today our highly connected world experiences more and more plant introductions.
Author: Gustavo Meneses
Published: 2021-05-11
Revised: 2023-12-13
Learn more about plant distributions:
Carlquist, Sherwin. Intercontinental Dispersal. Plant Discoveries. http://www.sherwincarlquist.com/intercontinental-dispersal.html
Vegetation. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Earth Observatory. https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOD_NDVI_M
Why Should I Care About Invasive Plants?, Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN, www.mipn.org ) https://bugwoodcloud.org/mura/mipn/assets/File/InvasivesBrochure.pdf
References
[1] “Ancient Scripts: Ogham – Old Irish inscriptions“. Feb 19, 2018. Taylor Institution Library. Blog. https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylorian/2018/02/19/ancient-scripts-ogham-old-irish-inscriptions/
[2] Gippert, Jost. 2001. “Ogam Inscriptions: Index“. Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialen (TITUS) http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/ogam/index.htm
[3] McManus, Luke. “The Secret World of Trees”. Amazon Prime. Documentary. 2016. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07F1DL8PX/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
[4] “Bosque Mesófilo con Arce (bosque de maple)”. Website. Accessed Feb 17 2023. http://bosquedearce.org
[5] Creech, David. “Acer skutchii – the Rare Mexico Mountain Sugar Maple”, Dave Creech ~ Life on the Green Side, May 11 2016. Website. Accessed Feb 17 2023. https://dcreechsite.com/2016/05/11/acer-skutchii-the-rare-mexico-mountain-sugar-maple/
[6] “Nirgundi, Nirguṇḍī, Nirgumdi: 18 definitions”, Wisdom Library, Website, Accessed Feb 17 2023. https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/nirgundi
[7] The Biota of North America Program, ‘BONAP’s Taxonomic Data Center (TDC) North American Vascular Flora’. http://bonap.net/tdc
[8] “A Short Primer on “Aster”ology”. Tangled Web, Sept 6, 2011. Accessed Dec 22, 2022. http://joebartok.blogspot.com/2011/09/brief-primer-on-asterology.html
[9] Meyer, Jean-Yves. Lavergne, Christophe. “Beautés fatales: Acanthaceae species as invasive alien plants on tropical Indo-Pacific islands”. Diversity and Distributions, vol 10, issue 5-6, pp.333-347, Sept 6 2004. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00094.x
[10] van Natta, Andrew R. April 2009. “Ecological Importance of Native Americans Culture to the Kentucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus)”. University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. https://www.uwsp.edu/forestry/StuJournals/Documents/NA/avannatta.pdf
[11] Photo of an educational plaque, “Flora y Fauna“. March 2020. Ancient aqueducts, Chapultepec, Mexico City, Mexico. https://imgur.com/a/eor1OnH
[12] Culley, Theresa M. 2017. “The Rise and Fall of the Ornamental Callery Pear Tree“. Arnoldia. Harvard University Press. http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/2017-74-3-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-ornamental-callery-pear-tree.pdf
[13] Patterson, Susan. Nov 2020. “Virginia Creeper Control: How to Get Rid of Virginia Creeper”. Gardening Know How. Website. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/vines/virginia-creeper/virginia-creeper-control.htm
[14] “English Names for Korean Native Plants”. 한반도 자생식물 영어이름 목록집. 2015. Korean Forest Service. Korea National Arboretum. Archive.org. pg.148. Website. Accessed Oct 13, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20170525105020/http://www.forest.go.kr/kna/special/download/English_Names_for_Korean_Native_Plants.pdf
[15] Lee, S.D., Miller-Rushing, A.J. 2014. “Degradation, urbanization, and restoration: A review of the challenges and future of conservation on the Korean Peninsula.” Biological Conservation, vol. 176, pp.262-276 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.05.010.
Images
[1a] “Vegetation Index [NDVI] (1 MONTH – TERRA/MODIS)”. NASA. Near Earth Observations (NEO). Website. https://neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MOD_NDVI_M
[2a] Little, Erbert L. “File:Gymnocladus dioicus range map 1.png”, USGS Geoscience and Environmental Change Science Center, Wikimedia Commons, 1977. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gymnocladus_dioicus_range_map_1.png
[3a] Little, Elbert L. Jr., “File:Acer negundo range map 1.png”, USGS Geosciences (…), Wikimedia Commons, 1971 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acer_negundo_range_map_1.png
[4a] Cillas, “File:Acer negundo3.jpg”, Wikimedia Commons, March 2000
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acer_negundo3.jpg
[5a] Apel, Michael. “Arctium lappa”. Wikimedia Commons. March 5, 2007. Accessed Dec 22, 2022. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arctium_lappa_MichaD.jpg
PRO - Plant Research Organization 
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