Plants of the Pine Barrens Of the several thousand species of
plants native to New Jersey, only about 550 species were known
to occur in the Pine Barrens in the early 1900’s. Witmer Stone,
the foremost authority on the vegetation of the Pine Barrens at
that time, indicated that a good many of these were present only
because people had amended the soil in the villages and
industrial sites. He put the number of “true” Pine Barrens
species at 386. The flora of the Pinelands National Reserve is a
more complicated matter. It contains most of the historical Pine
Barrens ecosystem, but also considerable coastal areas and some
Delaware Bay shore area. Also, the influence of people on the
vegetation communities of the Pinelands region has increased
exponentially. Here we offer brief sketches of a few true Pine
Barrens plants. Pine Barrens Gentian, Bog Asphodel, and Swamp
Pink are wetland flowers that are threatened or endangered
globally and nationally, yet are locally abundant in the
Pinelands. Unknown to many, the P