BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 38 PT. I(3)


 RESULTS


 A total of 112 vascular plant species were identified in the 13 ponds across all
3 sampling years. An additional 12 plants were only identifiable to genus. Of the
112 species, 30% were identified in only one of the 11 ponds for which there were
transect data; 64 (57%) were identified from the transect data alone; and the
balance of the species were identified from circuit searches made through the pond
basins. Of the species, 15% were present only in RP and 4% only in LDP. Of the
12 plants identified only to genera, 8 were the same genera as an identified species
and may have been one of those species. In addition to the vascular plants, three
groups of nonvascular plants were identified. Algae, Cladonia sp., and Sphagnum
sp. were present as ground cover in pond basins.
 Only two species, Panicum hemitomon and Andropogon glomeratus, were
present in 60% of the ponds for which there were transect data (Table 3).
However, if the data for all ponds are combined, an additional six taxa are present
in at least 60% (8) of the 13 ponds. These include Rhexia mariana var. mariana,
Eupatorium leptophyllum, Rhynchospora spp., Ilex glabra, Cephalanthus
occidentalis, and members of the family Eriocaulaceae. Rhynchospora spp. and
members of the family Eriocaulaceae were lumped together because of the similar
habitat requirements of individual species and their similar zonation within pond
basins.
 Co-dominant species in the 11 pond basins (Tables 4, 5) were represented by
 21 vascular and 2 nonvascular plants. Panicum hemitomon had the highest total
 percent cover in seven of the ponds. It was also a co-dominant in two additional
 ponds, resulting in co-dominance in 82% of the ponds with transect data. Of the
 co-dominant species, 78% were present in only one pond, 3 species were co-
 dominant in two pond basins, and Eupatorium leptophyllum was co-dominant in
 three ponds. Two non-vascular plants, Sphagnum sp. and Cladonia sp., were each
 co-dominant in one pond. Of the vascular plants determined to be co-dominants,
 52% were OBL, 33% were FACW, 10% were FAC, and 5% were FACU species.
 No UPL species (Reed 1988) were co-dominants, but Cladonia sp. is an upland
 associated species.
 Similarity indices indicated that the similarity between ponds was generally
 low. There were less than 50% shared species between most pond basins (Table
 6). Of the transects sampled in 1990, only five pairwise comparisons of pond
 vegetation (9%) had greater than 50% of their species in common. When the data
 collected in 1989 from the two transects in BP and GP were compared to each of
 the sets of data from the 1990 ponds, only the samples of vegetation from BP and
 GP shared greater than 50% of their species. The WREC ponds were the least
 similar to other ponds. The lowest SI was calculated when WE-5 and WE-11 were
 compared with OS. Similarity indices were highest when the ANF ponds were
 compared to each other.