Destruction at Split Rock Golf Course

Parks does it again. Now the issue is natural areas within golf courses (that were originally carved out of...natural areas). Split Rock Golf Course in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is now under new management. It seems there was nothing in the contract about leaving things as is . These folks want every blessed inch within the fence to be golf turf. Arck! And we had just gotten the other company to stop mowing the rare purple milkweed!
Surveying the damage...


Persimmons - a state listed rare tree. Now you see them...



Now you don't! Chipped into a woody pulp. It goes on...I just don't have the stomach for this anymore.

Magnolias face perilous future

The spectacular bloom of a magnolia may be a very common sight in gardens, but in the wild it is a different story.

A new report has found that over half the world's magnolia species are
facing extinction in their forest habitats. To wit, the sweetbay magnolia pictured here

Laugh, Cry, and a Flora

I think I'm going to present this botanical news in an order other than presented in the title - so as to be more "uplifting", like a Frank Capra film.

First, the flora.

CHECKLIST AND ATLAS OF THE VASCULAR FLORA OF WEST VIRGINIA

This 381-page printed document includes a series of completely revised lists of the vascular plants known to occur outside of cultivation in West Virginia and a dot map indicating from which counties each of the 2503 taxa is recorded.

But wait, there's more! You'll also get -

* a reference to names and classification of all the ferns, trees,wildflowers and other vascular plants and the counties in the state in which they occur;
* which species are native, introduced, adventive, or exotic;
* which are classified as wetland species, which may be invasive to natural areas;
* those needing further field work,
* those needing systematic study, and
* those tracked by the West Virginia Natural Heritage program as state rare.

Here's how to get yours!

Now, for the infuriating...

Again, US Fish and Wildlife does the bidding of their boss, the most unenvironmentally savvy President to ever walk the earth. May his days be filled with his own, personal global warming.

Fury sprouts over agency's failure to protect rare, local plant
from The Daily Sentinel

Raising the ire of conservationists, a rare plant that exists almost
entirely within areas that have been leased for oil and gas development in Mesa and Garfield counties will not be protected under the Endangered Species Act in the foreseeable future, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday...

And a feel good story if there ever was one - how botany brings the people of the world together (see photo).

from The Berkleyan

A plant-based diet for small-planet diplomats
Can botanical exchanges between the U.S. and Iran play the peacemaking role that ping-pong did 30 years ago?

As measured by international time zones or teenage girls' hemlines, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the American West are worlds apart. Yet as viewed through the lens of geography, geology, or climate, the nation- state and western United States have worlds in common . sharing not only the same northern latitudes but, in significant measure, important topographical features (large central plateaus, with interior-draining basins, lying between mountain ranges), Mediterranean climates, active earthquake faults, and (due in large part to these other similarities) a notably rich flora, with hundreds of plant species in common...

Can't you just feel the love?

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.

Read more of the story
Learn more about Presidio clarkia

The rarest in the land

Poor Torrey's mountainmint (Pycnanthemum torrei). There has been so much hooey over this population (then scroll 4/5 down) of the globally rare plant. It used to be part of the gorgeous! pristine (in some sections)! rare plant inhabited! 130 acres Kreischer Hill parcel, which was owned by the NYC EDC.

But conservation was not to be. Instead of thousands of years old glacial till sandy soils with their concomitant NYS rare communities and species, we have - what we've always needed! - Target, Home Depot, Bed/Bath/Beyond and a Christmas tree store. Hooray! That was certainly worth destroying the uncommonly occuring, sexually reproducing population of American chestnut. But that's just imho.

*Sigh*

Presently we are trying to conserve the population in situ (stop snickering!). This summer, we did a census of the mountainmint population. A transect was set up parallel to Veterans’ Road West. Every meter was marked off. Perpendicular to transect, 1m squared plots were set up. Within each plot the following data was collected – number of plants, number of individual stems, number of shoots, length of all stems, and the presence and number of flower heads. Casual observation suggests that the plants are grouped in clusters along this transect. This data will confirm whether or not this is the case. If so, further environmental factors will be examined to determine causal factors.

Orchids Found in SI

Today I went out with my pal Ray to root around along Staten Island's south shore...won't say exactly where...and we found two orchid species new to City records – large coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata) and bog twayblade (Liparis loeselii). Large coralroot lacks greenery - it has tawny brown stems and no leaves. This is because it does not photosynthesize. It is saprophytic, meaning it feeds off organic matter, like fungi. It is added in its nutrient intake by a short, stubby, branched root that resembles coral. Small white, purple spotted flowers appear in late summer.

As the name suggests, bog twayblade is found in wetland, open habitats. It has unremarkable yellowish-green flowers that are only 1/4” long that bloom in late summer.

Rare Plant Hunting

Today I romped around Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. I located NYS-listed rare plants Eastern gama grass (Tripsacum dactyloides) and common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) on an upland copse in Goose Creek Marsh. I noted something interesting – that the Eastern gama grass only appears ringing the upland perimeter of Phragmites, which is highly invasive. Where Phragmites was not observed, gama grass was also absent. T. dactyloides was noted as bearing seeds, but it was too early for the persimmon’s fruits.

Also found a patch of Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense). This patch was very small in both size and number of leaves (ramets). Given the undisturbed nature of the site and the seemingly high habitat quality, one would expect to find the plant extensively clonal here - aka a much larger patch. This population will be incorporated into my study of habitat quality using mayflower as an indicator species for forest quality.

New plant listings found and identified from this trip include: climbing hempweed (Mikania scandens), water plantain (Alisma subcordata), three-nerved joe-pye weed (Eupatorium dubium); these are all NYC rare and new finds for the borough. I also found the NYC willow herb (Epilobium coloratum) and the not rare but still cool tussock sedge (Carex stricta).

Invasive willow threatens wetlands, rare plants in East

Egads - another one.

From The Boston Globe

A European invader has been sneaking onto the New England coast, infiltrating and undermining the natives.

The large gray willow, a shrub or small tree that spreads rapidly and closely resembles our native pussy willow, has been flying under the radar for years, colonizing the edges of ponds and crowding out rare plants and animals throughout the eastern United States. It was just identified this spring.

Other countries that have been invaded by the species, Salix cinerea, also called the European gray willow, paint a grim picture. New Zealand considers it a major "pest plant". Australia calls it the worst of the invasive willows and warns it can cross-pollinate with other willows.

There is concern about the threat to coastal plain ponds that are host to a whole complex of rare insects, animals and plants, including the Plymouth gentian, rose coreopsis, hyssop hedge-nettle and slender marsh pink, as well as rare dragonflies and damselflies.

The European willow's presence is confirmed for Cape Cod and Rhode Island. It is expected to show up in coastal areas stretching from Maine to Long Island. The Harvard Herbaria in Cambridge, Mass., has a specimen collected in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, in 1967, so the willow has a lengthy head start on efforts to control it. (Yet ANOTHER reason why herbaria are so important!!)

The full article from The Boston Globe

More on Salix cinerea

Stalking the Wild Orchid

Sadly, wild plant pilfering happens all the time. People can be stupifingly self-centered & just plain evil when it comes to rare vegetation - as chronicled famously in The Orchid Thief. But maybe too I am a little more trusting, I didn't ask the NY Times reporter to don a blindfold.

Here, garden writer Ken Druse takes a walk with the Nature Conservancy in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey...and I am jealous.Read more

Guess what I found!

Somewhere in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx...

Schreber's aster (Eurybia schreberi {formerly Aster s.})

This native species has adapted to life on forest floors by being colonial. That is, it reproduces vegetatively, producing a leafy carpet. When it's happy, it will put up flowers, which are white. Easily confused with large-leaved aster (E. macrophylla), which has light blue blooms. But let's say you missed the boat on the flowers, as I did...what to do? Examine the basal leaves closely. Both species have heart-shaped bases. However, in E. schreberi, if you spread the bases, there is a rectangular shape between the lobes. Large-leaved is simply heart shaped. Obscure? You bet. That's why we botanists make the big bucks. It's important to differentiate between the two, since Schreber's aster is rare in New York State. Both species are uncommon in NYC.

Rough-leaved goldenrod (Solidago patula)

But that was just a teaser. I knew that plant was there. The "guess what I found" is this goldenrod. "They are a dime a dozen," you are thinking. Friend, you would be wrong.

Sure, Canada, early, gray, and rough-stemmed are common along roadsides and in old fields. Even seaside goldenrod isn't limited to its namesake habitat. But S. patula is one of the fabled "wetland goldenrods", which makes it unusual & rare in NYC. I had never seen it.

I found it quite by accident, as is the case with the best botanical finds. I knew it was a special goldenrod, and so marked the spot to return the next day. I came back armed with my Gleason & Cronquist and Britton & Brown. When it keyed out to S. patula, it felt as though I had just won a prize - a new find for the city!

Blunt Cliff Fern in Harlem


Blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa) festooning the Metro North train trestle in Manhattan. This fern is native and uncommon in NYC.
The ferns are back! Blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa) is growing quickly and by August should be nicely carpeting the sides of the Metro North train trestle that runs along Park Avenue in Spanish Harlem. This fern first came to my attention when I started my job 4 years ago. I walked under the trestle on my walk from the 103 Street 6 train to my office, all the while wondering what species they were but never stopping to look...until finally I did. Woodsia obtusa is not a common plant in NYC. Yet here they were, overwhelming the walls along Park Avenue.

Finally, the following year I did a floristic survey and found that within the mortar of this structure a unique plant community exists, including four fern species that are rare in the City.

Brief history - the trestle extends from 110 to 101 Streets. This portion is constructed of stone and was built in 1870. The mortar was created out of the rock, soil, timbers and various mining debris from creation of the rail tunnel under Park Avenue. Suitable fern habitat was created as these materials weathered and seeps were formed.


Close up of Woodsia obtusa

Surveys found 43 plant species. Whether native or exotic, the majority of the other plants present in the plots were weedy species more commonly found in marginal areas like vacant lots and roadsides. Five ferns were found, including sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis), a common wetland species, able to survive do to water pooling in the masonry. The other four are rare in NYC: ebony spleenwort (Asplenium platyneuron), walking fern (A. rhizophyllum), purple cliff-brake (Pellaea atropurpurea) and blunt cliff fern (Woodsia obtusa), are typical of cliff habitats. At approximately 30 feet tall, this trestle acts as a Manhattan cliff.

If one looks carefull around the perimeter wall of Central Park, you will find both blunt cliff fern and ebony spleenwort.


Rare Oak Woods, Staten Island


Early lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum) in flower. The flowers are always described as "white", but as you can see, they are so much more. A common NYC native shrub in dry, sandy soils.


Today I went to Conference House Park, to look for a site to plant rescued plants from Kreischerville up the road. These "rescued" plants are listed as rare in New York State - blunt spikerush (Eleocharis ovata) (S1) & fringed boneset (Eupatorium hyssopifolium var. laciniatum) (S2), which is the reason why we went to so much trouble to dig some up - otherwise they'd be sitting under the Home Depot, Target, Bed Bath Beyond, Chilis & Christmas tree store that was put there in its place. God knows we need more strip malls, especially sharing a very long border with a state nature preserve (Clay Pit).

Anyway, on my way to Conference House Park, I stopped by an area we refer to as "Rare Oak Woods" because it houses, wait for it, rare oaks. Onsite there are willow oaks (Quercus phellos), an S1, that are hybridizing with more common oaks (black, red). These hybrids can be prodigious producers of acorns, and subsequent generations often results in pure willow oak offspring. A super rare oak is the hybrid Q. x rudkinii, a cross between willow oak and blackjack oak (Q. marilandica), another rarity. Mostly these plants are rare in NY because they are at the northern part of their range. This also means that without all the hybridization, it would be difficult for them to reproduce. Ah, oaks. For more on NYS rare plants

Rare Oak Woods has very sandy, glacial outwash soils, as does this whole area of southern SI. This makes for really neat plant communities, with lots of heath shrubs. I love the heaths. Most people think of Heathcliff & Catherine ala Charlotte Bronte (writing out "Heathcliff" made me think of that Michael Penn song, "No Myth". I really like that song. Whatever happened to him anyway?); but the northeast has lots of native woody plants in this family (Ericaceae).


Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) in flower, with a Lepidopteran visitor. Another common native shrub.

Yet another interesting plant was pawpaw (Asimina triloba), another rarity (S2). This tree isn't actually native to NYC, it naturally occurs in western New York State, but there is a colony in Staten Island, planted by a former homeowner in the 1800s with seed from Indiana. The grove produces flowers (see below) and fruits. The latter are edible, reputed to resemble bananas both in taste and aspect. Haven't tried any yet, but hopefully this summer I will remember to make a trip down there.


Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) in flower, native & rare in New York State.