The Saline Wetland-Meadow Vegetation and Flora of the North Platte River Valley in the Nebraska Panhandle

Authors

Steven B. Rolfsmeier, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

1993

Document Type

Article

Comments

1993. Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences, XX: 13-24. Copyright © 1993 Rolfsmeier.

Abstract

The saline wetlands associated with the Platte River have received very little attention from botanists since the 1890s, and several plants widespread in these habitats, such as rayless salt-marsh aster (Aster brachyactis), annual goldenweed (Haplopappus annuus) and thelypody (Thelypodium integrifolium) have been considered rare in the State. A floristic inventory of sixteen tracts of saline lowlands near the North Platte River in Garden, Morrill, and Scotts Bluff counties reveals the presence of 231 species of vascular plants (169 native and 62 introduced), including three Eurasian halophytes (Althaea officinalis, Najas marina, Spergularia marina) not previously reported from Nebraska. Saline habitats along the North Platte River have a larger number of halophytic species than similar habitats in eastern Nebraska, though data from eastern salt marshes are insufficient for quantitative comparisons of species richness.