TY - JOUR T1 - Vascular plants of Konza Prairie Biological Station: An annotated checklist of species in a Kansas tallgrass prairie JF - Sida Y1 - 2002 A1 - Towne, E.G. KW - Biodiversity KW - prairie flora KW - Species richness KW - tallgrass prairie KW - vascular plant survey AB - The native and naturalized vascular plants of Konza Prairie Biological Station, a 3487-ha tallgrass prairie research site located in the Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas, are listed along with their primary habitat, relative abundance, flowering period, and life span. After more than 25 years of collections, the known vascular flora of Konza Prairie consists of 576 species, representing 336 genera and 96 families. Families with the most species are Poaceae (84), Asteraceae (79), Fabaceae (49), and Cyperaceae (33). Non-native species (n = 96) comprise 16.7% of the total flora. When categorized by life span, 64.6% of all species are perennials, 31.3% are annuals, and 4.2% are biennials. Species that are characteristically associated with a prairie habitat comprise 40.6% of the flora, followed by species in disturbed (22.4%), woodland (22.2%), and wetland (14.8%) habitats. In the prairie habitat, 16.2% of the species are grasses and 76.9% are herbaceous forbs. The C⁴ photosynthetic pathway occurs in 59.5% of all grass species and in 70.8% of the annual grasses. The diversified habitats created by management and research activities on Konza Prairie provide a flora richness that is likely greater than that of any other area of comparable size in the Great Plains region. VL - 20 UR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/41968021 ER -