In article <3A26907D.DB1B6D93 at museum.state.il.us>, Rick Toomey wrote:
> So, claiming that Ginkgo is a native to
> the western U.S. is similar to a me deciding
> that I should have a right to go to Ireland . . .
Rick,
We have a similar situation with regard to the botany of the British
Isles. It is generally accepted that the only native plants are those
that arrived by natural means between the end of the last Ice Age
(approx. 10,000 years ago) and the cutting of Britain off from the
European mainland by the rising waters of the North Sea (c. 8,000 years
ago). As you would expect, not much came over during that 2,000-year
gap. This is why we have such an impoverished native flora compared
with, say, France, which is only 25 or so miles away at its closest
point.
Is there a similarly emphatic and agreed cut-off point for defining the
North American native flora?
Roger
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Roger Whitehead,
Oxted, Surrey, England
