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Notes on invasive plants in the Rio Grande Delta of Cameron County, Texas.

Article Excerpt
Agricultural practices in the Rio Grande Delta from the 1930s to the 1980s resulted in the removal of 74,000 ha of the native woodland vegetation in Cameron County, Texas (Tremblay et al. 2005). Subsequently, this area has been prone to the invasion of exotic tropical and subtropical species. These introduced species have contributed to altered ecosytem functions.

Resource managers at the 420 ha Lennox Foundation Southmost Preserve (LFSP) are attempting to restore sites dominated by introduced species. Therefore, the purpose of this note is to report species richness of invasive species and the locations of these species in the preserve.

The LFSP is located along the Rio Grande about 15 km cast of Brownsville. The tract is part of the Boscaje de la Palma region of the Lower Rio Grande Wildlife Corridor. An endangered Texas palmetto (Sabal mexicana) forest (Diamond et al. 1987) occupies a small area. Commercial operations include row crop farming and citrus production. Discontinued palm, cycad, and lacebark elm nurseries occupy extensive areas, and roads and paths provide additional disturbances to the mesic landscape. Wetland sites include resacas (old ox-bows of the Rio Grande) and a narrow riparian zone adjacent to the Rio Grande.

Vegetation sampling was conducted by randomly establishing 100-m line transects (Canfield 1941) at each of 11 sites (Table 1). Transects were divided into 10 m intervals and readings were taken along the total length of each interval. Frequency, relative frequency, foliage cover, relative cover, and an importance value that indicates dominance were recorded for each species (Lonard...

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