Human-Assisted Plant Migration
In the face of changing climate, plants are being squeezed out of their traditional habitats by not just human pressure alone. The changing climate is making things too hot for a lot of plants. The following is from the November 11th Sigma Xi - American Scientist daily e-newsletter. My apologies to Sigma Xi for picking up items from them two days in a row, but news about plant conservation is rare and hard to come by; we can't afford to ignore any of it.
A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move
from the New York Times (Registration Required)
CHICAGO -- Pitcher's thistle, whose fuzzy leaves and creamy pink puffs once thrived in the sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes, was driven by development, drought and weevils into virtual extinction from the shores of Lake Michigan decades ago.
But in the 1990s, seeds collected from different parts of the thistle's range were grown at the Chicago Botanic Garden and planted with the help of the Morton Arboretum along the lake, in Illinois State Beach Park, north of Chicago near the Wisconsin state line. The plants from Indiana's dunes to the south are doing well; the plants that had come from the north are failing.
With those mixed results in mind, scientists from the botanic garden are sending teams out across the Midwest and West to the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin to collect seeds from different populations of 1,500 prairie species by 2010, and from 3,000 species by 2020. The goal is to preserve the species and, depending on changes in climate, perhaps even help species that generally grow near one another to migrate to a new range.
Discussion of this item was picked up in the e-mail list of the Pacific Bulb Society, and Paul Licht, director of the U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden pointed out that this work by the Chicago Botanic Garden is part of a larger program. To quote from Paul's posting:
"The program referred to here is part of the larger 'Seeds of Success' program (http://www.nps.gov/plants/SOS/index.htm) designed to 'save' many plants. Here at Berkeley, we are involved in collected about four dozen native Californian species as part of this program which focuses on more or less common species. In addition, we have been collecting and are now introducing several extremely endangered local species under the sponsorship of the Center for Plant Conservation.(http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/)."
Unquote
The U.C. Botanical Garden has more conservation projects underway.
Boyce Tankersley, Director of Living Plant Documentation at Chicago Botanic Garden, then took up the story:
"The CBG studies with respect to assisted migration are ongoing and the causes of some of the problems associated with Pitchers Thistle were only recently determined.
These kinds of projects are relatively unique because they require very long term investments of staff and financial support. We are very fortunate to have been able to assemble those in one place, at least for the Pitchers Thistle.
The Science staff working on this and other conservation efforts either at the species or ecosystem levels are now located in the new Science Center."
Unquote.
The Center for Plant Conservation is located on the grounds of the Missouri Botanic Garden in St. Louis. I visited the CPC on a trip to St. Louis about a year ago and had the pleasure of hearing the CPC story from the director herself, Dr. Kathryn L. Kennedy. They welcome the support of the plant-loving public! I encourage everyone to look into and support this activity.
It would seem reasonable to start with common species, but of course they are common because they have a high survivability; they are very adaptable. The rare ones are rare because they do not have this capability! They are rare because they cannot adapt to new and changing environments. These are almost the definitions of 'common' vs. 'rare'. So success with rare and endangered species of plants is likely always to be difficult to achieve. Niche species will always be a great challenge to keep alive as the planet changes.
If you plant new seedlings of a rare plant back into the same place where it is going extinct, it is not unreasonable to expect that the seedlings will be affected at least as much as the existing plants by whatever forces are driving the extinction. You would need to find new locations, and make the new spots safer for the plants than the original habitat was.
Change is inevitable and on-going. Remember that everything growing in the Midwest above ca. latitude 40ºN was not there 20,000 years ago. There was just a mile-thick layer of ice. The plants have had 20,000 years to migrate to where they are now. The next migration, unfortunately, may have to be made in 100 years instead -- that is where I can see human intervention being useful and indeed necessary. We can move plants from one mountain that's becoming too warm to another that is higher or farther north, and perhaps they will survive a while longer.
Good gardening, from here in central Indiana
Jim
I haven't seen any Hippeastrum in bloom so far this season, but these bulbs in bud at Habig's Garden Shop in Westfield will probably be in full flower in another couple of weeks.
