(b. 19 July 1941)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) has accessioned over 1,100 specimens collected by Richard J. LeBlond and it continues to be the primary repository for specimens. As we continue to catalog our collections, without doubt more specimens collected by LeBlond will be found.
Other herbaria curating specimens collected by LeBlond include Auburn University Museum of Natural History (AUA), Delaware State University (DOV), Harvard Herbaria (GH, A, NEBC), Louisiana State University (LSU), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO), New Mexico State University (NMCR), New York Botanical Garden (NY), Old Dominion University (ODU), Florida State University (FLAS), University of Georgia (GA), University of Michigan (MICH), University of Mississippi (MISS), University of South Carolina (USCH), University of South Florida (USF), and Botanical Research Institute of Texas (VDB).
Richard LeBlond is interested in the vascular flora of the eastern United States in general and the coastal plain of North Carolina in particular. He has been an Associate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium since 2003.
Richard LeBlond was born in Portland, Oregon on July 19, 1941. After serving in the United States Navy as a journalist, he graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1966 with a B.A. in English Literature. He joined the National Park Service in 1967 as an administrative assistant at Glacier National Park, transferring to Cape Cod National Seashore in 1968. He left the park service in 1972 and lived in Europe until 1974, mostly in Spain and Greece. After Europe, he returned to Cape Cod and became administrator of the Outer Cape Environmental Association and founded the Provincetown Conservation Trust. This work led to an increasing interest in botany and the odd yet fortuitous belief that no one would take him seriously if he did not learn the grasses, sedges, and rushes. And that has made all the difference. In 1990 he began working as an inventory biologist in southeastern North Carolina, and became a staff member of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program in 1994.
LeBlond retired from the Heritage Program in April, 2007.
In 2017 he completed reviewing (and annotating as needed) all NCU’s specimens of Panicum and Dichanthelium.
PUBLISHED WORKS (incomplete listing):
LeBlond, R. J. (2018) Dichanthelium. In: Weakley et al. Taxonomic innovations in the southeastern United States flora. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 12(1): 58-59.
LeBlond, R. J. (2018) Coleataenia longifolia subsp. combsii (Poaceae: Paniceae) in Canada. In: Weakley et al., Taxonomic innovations in the southeastern U.S. flora. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 12(1): 57-58.
LeBlond, R. J., R. F. C. Naczi, A. S. Weakley, K. S. Walz, R. W. Freckmann and W. McAvoy. (2017) Taxonomy of the Dichanthelium hirstii (Poaceae), a very rare and disjunct witch-grass of the eastern U.S. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 11(2): 413-417.
LeBlond, R. J. (2017) Dichanthelium. In: Weakley et al. Taxonomic innovations in the southeastern United States flora. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 11(2): 314-318.
LeBlond, R. J. (2016) New combinations in Dichanthelium (Poaceae). J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 10(1): 33-43.
LeBlond, R. J. (2015) Needed lectotypifications in Panicum (Poaceae) and a few observations of another era. Phytoneuron 2015-34: 1-10.
LeBlond, Richard J., Samantha M. Tessel, and Derick B. Poindexter (2015) Scleria bellii (Cyperaceae), a distinctive and uncommon nutsedge from the southern U.S., Cuba, and Mexico. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 9(91): 31-41.
Sorrie, B. A. and R. J. LeBlond (2014) Eleocharis fallax (Cyperaceae): Recent collections and morphological comparison with E. ambigens and E. montevidensis. Phytoneuron 2014-7: 1-7.
Weakley, Alan S., Richard J. LeBlond, Bruce A. Sorrie, C. Theo Witsell, L. Dwayne Estes, Kanchi Gandhi, Katherine Gould Mathews, and Atsushi Ebihara (2011) New combinations, rank changes, and nomenclatural and taxonomic comments in the vascular flora of the southeastern United States. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 5(2): 437-455.
Sorrie, Bruce A., Patrick D. McMillan, Brian van Eerden, Richard J. LeBlond, Philip E. Hyatt, and Loran C. Anderson. 2011. Carex austrodeflexa (CYPERACEAE), a new species of Carex sect. Acrocystis from the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 5(1): 45-51.
Wall, W.A., T.R. Wentworth, S. Sheligoski, J.M. Stucky, R.J. LeBlond, and W.A. Hoffmann. 2011. Lost and found: Remnants of the Big Savannah and their relationship to west savannas in North Carolina. Castanea 76(4): 348-365.
LeBlond, Richard J. and Daniel F. Brunton. 2010. Noteworthy collections: North Carolina. Castanea 75(4): 501-502. [Isoetes microvela D.F. Brunt. Collected in Sampson County, NC]
LeBlond, Richard J. 2010. The type specimens of Panicum roanokense (Poaceae). Phytoneuron 2010-7: 1-4. http://phytoneuron.net/PhytoN-Panicumroanokense.pdf
Sorrie, Bruce A. and Richard J. LeBlond. 2008. Noteworthy collections from the southeastern United States. J. Bot. Res. Inst. Texas 2(2): 1353-1361.
LeBlond, Richard J., Edward E. Schilling, Richard D. Porcher, Bruce A. Sorrie, John F. Townsend, Patrick D. McMillan and Alan S. Weakley. 2007. Eupatorium paludicola, sp. nov. (Asteraceae): A new species form the coastal plain of North and South Carolina. Rhodora 109 (938): 137-177.
Schilling, Edward E. , Richard J. LeBlond, Bruce A. Sorrie and Alan S. Weakley. 2007. Relationships of the New England Boneset, Eupatorium novae-angliae (Asteraceae). Rhodora 109 (938): 145-160.
Shelingoski, S., R.J. LeBlond, J.M. Stucky, and T.R. Wentworth. 2005. Flora and soils of Wells Savannah, an example of a unique savannah type. Castanea 70: 101-114.
LeBlond, R. J. and A. S. Weakley. 2002. Schizaea pusilla in North Carolina. Rhodora 104: 86-91.
LeBlond, R. J. 2001. Endemic plants of the Cape Fear Arch region. Castanea 66: 83-97.
LeBlond, R. J. and B. A. Sorrie. 2001. Additions to and noteworthy records for the flora of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. Castanea 66: 288-302.
LeBlond, R. J. 2001. Taxonomy of the Dichotoma group of Dichanthelium (Poaceae). Sida 19: 821-837.
LeBlond, R. J. 2000. Solidago villosicarpa (Asteracaea: Astereae), a rare new southeastern Coastal Plain endemic. Sida 19: 291-300.
LeBlond, R. J. 1997. Distribution of Rhynchospora harperi. Castanea 62: 278-280.
Sorrie, B.A., and R.J. LeBlond. 1997. Vascular plants new to the Bahamas and Andros Island. Bahamas Journal of Science 4 (2): 14-18.
LeBlond, R. J., A. S. Weakley, A. A. Reznicek, and W. J. Crins. 1994. Carex lutea (Cyperaceae), a rare new coastal plain endemic from North Carolina. Sida 16: 153-161.
LeBlond, R.J. 1982. The Provincelands golden clubs. Rhodora 84: 297-300.
UNPUBLISHABLE WORKS (incomplete list):
KEY TO THE PINES OF SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Looks like longleaf.
Is …………………………………………………………………………….. P. palustris
Isn’t.
Either ……………………………………………………………. P. elliottii
Or …………………………………………………………………. P. palustris x P. taeda
Doesn’t look like longleaf.
Cones look like buffalo chips ………………………………………. P. serotina
Cones look like Schwarzenegger chips …………………………. P. taeda