Preliminary Cryptogamic (Moss, Lichen and Liverwort) Flora of the Canadian and American Gorge at Niagara Falls

P. M. Eckel
Res Botanica, a Missouri Botanical Garden Web site

http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/ResBot/index.htm

June 21, 2004

PRELIMINARY CRYPTOGAMIC (MOSS, LICHEN AND LIVERWORT) FLORA OF THE CANADIAN AND AMERICAN GORGE AT NIAGARA FALLS

P. M. Eckel, Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA

1. Mosses a through f

Mosses g through z

2. Lichens

3. Liverworts

4. Algae and Bibliography

Mnium cuspidatum Hedwig

The list is under construction.

The following is only an introduction to the species, based on some literature and a few loans from various herbaria. Extensive field collections, now at MO, made over several years, on both sides of the Niagara River await determination and this list will be updated from time to time as they are processed.

The Niagara River, especially that section encompassing the river immediately upstream from the cataracts and downstream from them along the 7-mile gorge flowing north to Lewiston, New York - Queenston, Ontario, is the primary focus of this study.

According to Knobloch and Bleekman (1937), a Mycological and Bryological section was established at the Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, New York on February 1933. The members intended to build upon the list of cryptogams published earlier by David F. Day and colleagues (1883). From the 1937 publication it appears that most of the author's efforts concentrated in the Allegany State Park area of Cattaraugus Co., yet some work was done in the area about Buffalo. Colleagues included John Parlin, E. A.. Moxley, Dr. O. E. Jennings and Prof. W. P. Alexander.

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From the archived correspondence of G. W. Clinton (Vol. 10. No. 166 [A 121]), in a letter to him from C. F. Austin, there appeared the following:

"Closter, N.J. July 27th, 1874

Dear Sir:

I only spent one afternoon at the Falls. Found Barbula fragilis, B. recurvifolia and Hypnum minutissimum [+ H. vernicosum written in]; also Fissidens grandifrons, Bryum turbinatum, Didymodon luridus, Trichostomum rigidulum, T. tophaceum &c."

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In the present list "NY CHECK" indicates that this species is reported for the Niagara River area by Ketchledge, l980. When it is succeeded by NEW, then it represents a new record for the New York, as opposed to Ontario, area. All voucher specimens for this study are deposited in the Clinton Herbarium (BUF), Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo, NY, 14211, and new district records for Ontario in the National Bryophyte Herbarium (CAN), Ottawa, Canada. It is presumed that all Roderick Cameron's specimens came from the Parks area of the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Names in bold face are main entries, any following names in italics are synonyms.

For specimens cited with no country indicated, one might assume generally that if it was made by either an American citizen or a Canadian, the specimen was collected on the side of the collector's citizenship: Coe Finch Austin and Rev. Francis Wolle, for example, were Americans, and probably collected in New York. John Macoun and Roderick Cameron appear to have collected exclusively on the Canadian side. George Clinton collected on both sides, and some judgment is necessary before assigning east or west sides of the Niagara River as the provenance for certain of his specimens.

Throughout this catalogue many references are made to a locality within the Niagara River gorge called "Whirlpool Woods." Since forests occur on both sides of the river, one in Canada, one in the United States, some ambiguity exists as to the provenance of such specimens. The American woods occurs on a harsh, exposed, west-facing slope, but the Canadian woods is founded on a deep, shaded declivity, facing east on glacial rubble deposited in a buried preglacial gorge (the "St. David's gorge"), dissected by a stream originating on the high bank above the gorge rim. This densely wooded area is known as Bowman's Ravine.

In a funeral message given by Frank H. Severance on the death of George W. Clinton (1885), collector of many of the Niagara specimens in the following lists, quoted by Zenkert (1934, following Severance 1911), is the following note:

"To those of us who live within the sound of Niagara no student of the regional flora will ever attain quite the place long held by George W. Clinton. For many years he was, preeminently Buffalo's naturalist. Botany was his delight, and no one knew better than he all the herbal and sylvan treasures of Niagara's banks. He especially loved the Whirlpool woods, not then as now despoiled and devastated, but a wonderful wild nook, where great tulip and sassafras trees grew. Foster's Flats, too - now politely named Niagara Glen - with its walking-fern (Camptosorus rhyzophyllus), its rare Aspidiums and Pellaeas, and other lovely shy things in the vegetable world, was a favorite forage-ground."

Both localities were on the Canadian side of the gorge - the locale of the Whirlpool Woods (Bowman's Ravine). The devastation Severance wrote of was due to the railroad constructed along the gorge rim from the cataracts to Queenston, and its use for power plant construction (of which there were no less than four from just above the brinks and at the plunge pool). The railroad was used to cart rubble and Whirlpool Woods was used as a convenient gully within which to dump blasted rock. Much of Bowman's Ravine today, still the haven of massive Tulip trees, is buried under this material. Many places in the gorge on the American side are also mantled in blasted rock from later power plant excavations and bridge abuttments, as well as the occasional use by the municipalities as garbage dumps and sewer outlets.

Funded by a grant from the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club.

Thanks to John. H. Haines of the New York State Museum for examination of some fungi, as well as Ernst Both of the Buffalo Museum of Science, and to William R. Buck (mosses) and Richard Harris (lichens), Richard Zander (mossews and liverworts), C. T. Rogerson (fungi).