Despite an intensive search on our first day in the William B. Bankhead National Forest we could not find a single R. alabamense. Where had the many plants gone that should cover the forest floor as mentioned by Skinner? However, on the second day there was some success. On the other hand we also saw areas where the forest had undergone a prescribed burn about two or three years before. Here in contrast to all the other woody plants R. alabamense recovered slowly or not at all. Obviously R. alabamense connot stand such treatment. Further some forested areas travelled by Skinner in the fifties seemed to have been turned into pastures.
