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Floras, or documented lists of vascular plant species in a defined area, are widely used in biodiversity research and conservation, and represent a common type of publication in regional botanical and natural history journals. Although all floras present common types of information, there has not yet been a formal attempt to develop community standards for floristic data. As a consequence, published floras often lack basic data describing the study area, taxonomic sources, and criteria for inclusion of species. Here, we develop a grading scheme for floras and apply it to 145 articles in 5 leading journals (Castanea, Rhodora, Sida/Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Journal of the Torrey Botanical Club, and Southeastern Naturalist) published from 2000 through 2009. We found that the average ‘grade’ was 80%, and did not vary among journals. We also list common mistakes and confusions. We urge authors, editors, and reviewers to adopt (and adhere to) a set of standards that we provi...

Epiphyllous bryophytes are poorly documented for temperate eastern North America. Ten liverwort taxa and one moss species are reported as epiphylls on Rhododendron maximum from the Appalachian Plateau (Fentress County, Tennessee, and Menifee County, Kentucky). The Kentucky localities represent the northernmost documented sites for bryophyte epiphylls in eastern North America. Three North American liverwort endemics, Lejeunea ruthii, Leucolejeunea clypeata, and Radula obconica, and the moss, Platygyrium repens, are newly reported as epiphylls. Colony size ranged from

Carter Caves State Resort Park (CCSRP) is comprised of 800 ha in Carter County, Kentucky. A field-based inventory of the pteridophytes of the park was conducted from September 2005–October 2007. Additionally, pteridophyte collections at regional herbaria were examined for specimens from the park. These efforts yielded a pteridophyte flora of 46 species and one hybrid for CCSRP; this is 61% of Kentucky's known pteridophyte flora. Index of similarity values with other published floras ranged from 22.2% to 84.5%. CCSRP had over twice the predicted number (21) of pteridophyte species based on a species-area curve constructed with data from other regional floras.