Jennie: I don't know either, but Gleason and Cronquist list 73 species of orchids for the northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada, essentially Minnesota to New Brunswick, south to Iowa the northeastern corner of Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia.
Probably about 40 of these occur in New England, but someone who has a New England flora would have to look and count the species listed. If someone has an Xid database for New England, you could look there as well. Xid databases are published on CD by state and region, and they show a picture of every known plant species for the region covered, as well as allow one to key out plants without using the difficult dichotomous taxonomic keys. You just keep selecting features of your specimen, and the list of plant species it could be keeps getting narrower, until there are only 2-3 left, and it pops up a picture of each so you can choose which one you are looking at. This has certainly simplified field work in MN, but I don't know if Xid has gotten as far east as New England yet. None of the 73 species present in the NE quadrant of the U.S. normally grow in tree canopies (but there might be an occasional orchid that takes root high in a tree in old growth stands where large pockets of soil might accumulate). Canopy orchids are a tropical phenomenon. Lee Gary A Beluzo wrote: > Jennie, > > Looking forward to the answer, no idea. > > Gary > > > > On Nov 2, 2009, at 11:19 AM, Jennie <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Hi everyone, >> >> Does anyone know how many native orchid species there are in New >> England? Of these, does anyone know how many are canopy species? I >> can't seem to find a definitive answer. >> >> Thanks, >> Jennie >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
