Honors Program
University Honors
Date of Award
5-2011
Thesis Professor(s)
Foster Levy
Thesis Professor Department
Biological Sciences
Thesis Reader(s)
Jamey Donaldson, Elwood Watson
Abstract
The flora of southern Appalachian high elevation balds has strong representation of northern disjuncts and regional endemics. Among the endemics, the showy Lilium grayi (Gray’s Lily), is most noteworthy for its historical significance and for a high public profile. As bald vegetation changes in response to human and natural environmental shifts, active bald management has been implemented on public lands. Among managed balds, the Roan Mountain massif supports a large population of L. grayi. The purpose of this study was to describe the demography of adult plants, compare browsed and non-browsed plots, and determine the extent to which disease may impact survival and reproduction of L. grayi on Roan Mountain. There were no significant differences between browsed and control plots in measures of plant morphology, vigor, or reproductive output, but browsed plots had significantly more juvenile plants compared to controls. Along a transect, spatial analyses uncovered clusters of diseased and healthy plants and showed that plants in close proximity tended to be alike in disease status and those distant were more unalike. A pathogenic fungus, Pseudocercosporella inconspicua, may be the disease pathogen.
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Powell, Joseph, "Impacts of Goat Browsing and Disease on Lilium Grayi, Gray's Lily, on Roan Mountain." (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 16. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/16
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.