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Natural Area Teaching Laboratory

Natural Area Teaching Laboratory

Plants: Biota

The Biota section of the NATL website lists organisms that occur in the Natural Area and summarizes what is known about some of them. For each taxonomic or ecological grouping, species are listed by scientific and vernacular names. In some cases, these names are hyperlinked to summary accounts that give relevant information about the species and access to other materials, such as accounts at other websites.

Vascular Plants by Scientifc/Common Name

This is the central source for data, images, and information about NATL's more than 560 species of vascular plants. Species are listed alphabetically by scientific name

If you don't know the scientific name of a plant of interest, you can search for it by its common name. However, be forewarned that many species have multiple common names and the ones that are less frequently used may not be in our indexes. Each common name in our indexes is linked to the scientific name most frequently associated with it.

Plant Community Monitoring

Plant community monitoring is extremely important because it can guide our decision-making concerning the impact our management actions have on certain communities. A prime area of concern is the upland pine community, where active restoration with considerable resources is being spent. Over time, monitoring data may help inform visitors and provide real data for any potential research projects as well.

In 2018 members of the NATL operations committee, along with volunteers, helped establish a set of long-term monitoring plots. The plots established are 10m2 and feature five nested quadrats of sizes (0.01m2, 0.1m2, 1m2, 3.16m2, 10m2) that extend outwards beginning from the NE plot corner. A total of 10 plots were established at NATL's upland pine area. Plots were established with donated scrap metal poles, marked with GPS, and photographed annually from the south plot border facing north. In each plot, species presence was recorded only once as they occurred in each nested quadrat. Coverage for each species was measured at the 10m2 level. The overstory is included but denoted with the * symbol in the data. Data is transferred from the Google Sheets link to the NATL website annually.

Click here to download:
NATL Plant Community Monitoring Data
Community Map
Monitoring Protocal
Grid Map
GPS Grid Points
NATL Grid Project

Trail Sequences

In 2010, to make routine nature trail maintenance easier, spreadsheets were developed that listed, in sequence, each item on display along the trail. For example, these are the four sequences for October 2010: Upland Pine, Old Field, Hammock, SEEP. To facilitate future seasonal updating of the trails, at the end of each month, the four current sequences are archived.