When helping is hurting

Preserving endangered plant populations can be very straight forward. Save a site from development, save the plants. Other times it is complicated. This story is the latter, and why gardening and restoration, albeit noble and important, are no substitute for conservation.

This story is about the Presidio clarkia (Clarkia franciscana) pictured above and two gardeners who thought they were "helping".

Horticultural 'bad guys' meant well

NO MATTER HOW you look at it, Concord resident Bob Case is an unlikely villain in a recent kerfuffle over the Presidio clarkia, a delicate little blossom that grows in only two places in the world -- San Francisco's Presidio and on a small patch of the Oakland hills.

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Learn more about Presidio clarkia