This is a list of plants that are endemic to the Appalachian Mountains of North America.
Significance
The Appalachian Mountains of Eastern North America are a biodiversity hotspot. Like other mountains, the Appalachians have high rates of endemism because they create isolated "islands" of unique habitat conditions distant from other, similar habitats. The high elevations of the Appalachians functioned as refugia at the end of the last ice age, and house many relict taxa that were more widespread in Southeastern North America when the climate was cooler. Together with the rugged, heterogenous topography and mild, wet climate, these factors make the Appalachians one of the most biodiverse temperate regions in the world.
List
- Abies fraseri - Fraser fir.Endemic to high elevations of the Appalachian mountains.
- Borodinia serotina- shale-barrens rockcress. It is found only in Virginia and West Virginia.
- Bryodesma tortipilum - twisted-hair spikemoss, found only in a narrow range from western North Carolina to north Georgia.
- Buckleya distichophylla- piratebush. It is a hemiparasitic shrub that is only found in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
- Clematis viticaulis - Millboro leather flower. It is found only in Bath, Augusta, and Rockbridge counties of the U.S. state of Virginia.
- Clintonia umbellulata- white clintonia. It is found in the Appalachian mountains, from as far south as Georgia to as far north as New York.
- Convallaria pseudomajalis - American lily-of-the-valley. It is found in the Southern Appalachians, in mountain forests at elevations between 700 and 1,500 feet.
- Draba ramosissima- branched draba or rocktwist. It is found in the central area of the southern Appalachian mountains, mainly on rocky outcrops of limestone or mafic rocks.
- Eubotrys recurva- mountain fetterbush. It is common at higher elevations of the southern Appalachian mountains.
- Eurybia chlorolepis - Mountain wood aster. It is found in the red spruce-Fraser fir forests of the high elevation Appalachian mountains.
- Gentiana austromontana- Appalachian gentian. It is found only in mountainous areas of West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, with populations in Roan Mountain State Park and Cherokee National Forest.
- Ilex collina- Hill Holly or longstalk holly. It is found at high elevations in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.
- Liatris helleri- Heller's blazing star. It grows only on high rocky cliffs and grassy balls of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
- Phacelia fimbriata - fringed phacelia. It is found only in the southern Appalachian mountains, at elevations above 3,500 feet.
- Taenidia montana - mountain parsley. It is found only in the mountains of Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.
- Vaccinium altomontanum- Blue Ridge blueberry. It is found strictly in the high elevations of the Appalachian mountains in a narrow range.
Notes
References