Vascular Plant Flora of Stone Mountain Park, DeKalb County, Georgia, Based on Digitized Specimens in the University of Georgia Herbarium (GA)

Stone Mountain in DeKalb County, Georgia, is a large exposed granite monolith, 514 m (1,686 ft) above sea level and covering 230 ha (560 ac). This monadnock is located in the southwestern portion of Stone Mountain Park, comprising 1,300 ha (3,212 ac) owned by the state of Georgia. Recent specimen digitization efforts at the University of Georgia Herbarium (GA) have greatly facilitated capture of data from historic vouchers collected from this park. Based on these newly available data, the goals of this project were to (1) prepare a vouchered species list for the park, (2) produce a vegetation map based on georeferenced label data, and (3) identify all plant collectors and track collection activities through time and taxon focus. Eighty-one individuals and teams collected 1,207 vouchers (709 species) dated 1846–2011. The largest families were Asteraceae (96 spp.), Poaceae (70 spp.), Fabaceae (49 spp.), Cyperaceae (33 spp.), Rosaceae (21 spp.), and Lamiaceae (20 spp.). Approximately 17.5% of the species were exotic. Eighteen species are listed as rare in Georgia with state protection status conferred on five species; Gratiola amphiantha (threatened) and Isoetes melanospora (endangered) are also federally ranked. Specimen label data and various map resources were used to plot the locality of each specimen. Habitat data were recorded on 808 specimen labels, allowing assignment of 612 taxa to at least one of five general habitat types. GPS coordinates, assigned through GeoLocate, were combined with habitat data and infrared imagery to create a general vegetation map of Stone Mountain Park.