A newly abundant Gracilaria species in the sounds of southeastern North Carolina has become a problem for commercial fishing and industries drawing water from the lower Cape Fear River. DNA sequence analyses have shown that this species is Gracilaria vermiculophylla, a taxon originally described from East Asia. Surveys for G. vermiculophylla have shown that it has a discontinuous distribution in the sounds of southeastern North Carolina, and suggest that it is spreading. Gracilaria vermiculophylla meets 6 of the 10 criteria used to help identify invasive species in that it has only recently appeared in southeastern North Carolina; is associated with human mechanisms of dispersal; has a restricted distribution; has disjunct populations in isolated oceans; no means of active dispersal, and an exotic evolutionary origin. The species may also meet two additional criteria as its local range is believed to be expanding, and it is filling a previously unoccupied seasonal niche. These factors taken together strongly suggest that G. vermiculophylla is an invasive species in southeastern North Carolina.

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Alsike clover plants were grown in six different concentrations of boron to study the growth effect of boron on alsike clover and to observe how the intercrossing of plants having different boron conteat affected seed production. Boron deficiency symptoms occurred in plants grown in nutrient lacking boron, optimum vegetative growth took place in nutrient containing 0.1 to 0.25 p.p.m. boron, and toxicity was observed in plants grown in concentrations of 2.5 and 5.0 p.p.m. boron. Boron was required for flower and seed production, and the optimum level for seed production was 0.5 to 1.0 p.p.m. boron which was higher than that necessary for best vegetative growth. Good numbers of seeds were also obtained when pollen from plants grown in 1.0, 2.5, and 5.0 p.p.m. boron was used on pistils of plants grown in 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 p.p.m. boron.

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