From our friend Jackie Donnelly of the Saratoga Woods and Waterways blog comes a video of the phenomenon of exploding cattail heads. Its very interesting how these heads are so packed together with fruits that a slight nudge will start the dispersal process. I have added another video below Jackie’s showing the same phenomenon in a slightly different way. Some of you may have had this happen on its own if you used the heads in dried arrangements. – Steve Young
PENNSYLVANIA RARE PLANT FORUM
9:30 AM-about 2:30 PM
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Jennings Environmental Education Center
12 miles north-west of Butler, on PA Route 528 just west of Route 8
40.9° N 80.1° W, Elevation 350 m
All people interested in the conservation of Pennsylvania’s native flora are encouraged to attend this meeting. The Rare Plant Forum is a function of the Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, and for over thirty years has served in an advisory role to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for issues related to the conservation of the native flora of Pennsylvania. In addition to discussing proposed changes to the list of Plants of Special Concern in Pennsylvania (POSCIP), there will be a few related presentations. This is an excellent opportunity to connect and work with other botanists, amateur and professional, who share your interest in the flora of Pennsylvania.
It is fitting for us to meet at a facility named for Otto E. Jennings, late Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and early advocate of native plant conservation. If you know of people who might be interested in attending, especially in NW Pennsylvania or adjacent parts of Ohio and New York, please extend this invitation to them.
The proposal form is in an Excel spreadsheet, downloadable at http://www.paconserve.org/256. Related documents such as the definitions of the status categories and the minutes from past meetings are also available here. Please start working on your proposals right away, as John Kunsman and I will need some lead time to help gather the data. Please submit your proposals by 4 March. Proposals will be posted to the above url shortly after I receive them, and a summary will be distributed at least a week before the meeting along with an agenda.
Presentations
You are encouraged to consider presenting on recent work you have done related to the conservation of the flora of our region. One of the advantages of holding the Rare Plant Forum is the opportunity to share the results of our work. This can increase the value of your work by allowing others to build upon it. It also encourages collaboration and minimizes duplication of effort. Email or call me with the subject and how much time you would like.
There will be time on the agenda for un-premeditated announcements, but it helps me plan if I have some idea how many there will be, so let me know if you can.
Dinner on Friday
Some of us will be having dinner on Friday at North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock. Let me know (sgrund@paconserve.org) if you would like to join us; I will make a reservation.
River Running!
Some of us are going to take advantage of the spring thaw on Sunday to explore a local stream, probably Wolf Creek. WPC owns land at Wolf Creek Narrows where we can take out and botanize. It is one of the best spring wildflower sites in the Commonwealth. Some experienced whitewater enthusiasts might brave Slippery Rock Creek Gorge. Email me if you are interested.
Camping
We have reserved the Muskrat Cove group camping site at Moraine State Park for Friday and Saturday (http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/moraine/moraine_mini.pdf). This will be primitive camping with water, but no hot water. The cost will be $10/night divided between everyone who camps. Please contact Kelly Sitch at c-ksitch@state.pa.us if you are interested.
See you soon! – Steve
Steve Grund
Chair, Pennsylvania Rare Plant Forum
Botanist, Pennsylvania Natural Heritage Program
Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
800 Waterfront Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
sgrund@paconserve.org
(412) 586-2350
Washington, D.C. – Only 39 percent of the nearly 10,000 North American plant species threatened with extinction are protected by being maintained in collections, according to the first comprehensive listing of the threatened plant species in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Seed banks or living collections maintained by public gardens and conservation organizations across North America provide an insurance policy against extinction for many threatened species.
The North American Collections Assessment – conducted collaboratively by Botanic Gardens Conservation International U.S., the U.S. Botanic Garden, and Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum – found that 3,681 of 9,494 of North America’s most threatened plant species are maintained in 230 collections. Much more collaborative work is needed to conserve North America’s botanical wealth and to provide true protection against extinction, says the report, Conserving North America’s Threatened Plants, released this week
Andrea Kramer, Botanic Gardens Conservation International U.S. executive director, said, “These assessment results are hopeful, but also a call to action. For many public gardens, this report marks the first time their potential to assist in the conservation effort has been recognized. We hope this is a watershed moment.”
“As the U.S. Botanic Garden, we felt a critical need for a common baseline of understanding among the entire conservation community,” said Ray Mims, one of the authors. “To move forward together to protect North America’s native plants, we have to understand where we are today. Now that we know both what is threatened and what needs to be protected, there is a solid foundation on which to build future conservation work.”
“One of the lessons we learned from this assessment is how important it is to curate for conservation,” said Michael Dosmann, curator of living collections at the Arnold Arboretum. “Curators and horticulturists have not always considered conservation value as they go about their routines. Yet by participating in this assessment, many for the very first time saw the direct value of their plants in bolstering efforts to conserve our threatened flora. We hope this becomes a new paradigm in collections management.”
Assessment results indicate that North America did not reach the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation’s (GSPC) Target 8 goal set in 2002 of protecting 60 percent of threatened plant species in collections by 2010. While botanical organizations across Canada, Mexico and the United States are making progress to achieve these targets, the report found that 3,500 or more additional threatened plant species will need to be added to current collections to meet the new GSPC goal of conserving 75 percent of known threatened species in North America by 2020. This will require nearly doubling the current capacity.
The assessment calls for the strengthening of conservation networks and collaboration in conservation planning and data sharing. Institutions are urged to contribute plant lists to BGCI’s PlantSearch database and update them regularly. It is crucial to increase cooperation and coordination among a broad and diverse network of gardens and conservation organizations with different expertise and resources. To win this race against extinction, conservation organizations will need to prioritize the development of genetically diverse and secure collections to ensure meaningful protection of threatened plants.
Additional information and the full report can be found at www.bgci.org/usa/MakeYourCollectionsCount
POSITION: Assistant Plant Inspector
SALARY: $15.93/hour
APPOINTMENT: Temporary, Non-Competitive
LOCATION: Otsego County
POSITION DESCRIPTION: As an Assistant Plant Inspector, you will be assigned to the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Control Program. The objective of the EAB Control Program is to minimize human assisted spread of this insect within New York and to adjacent states. This position will ensure regulated material is properly transported, the appropriate documents are used, and that regulated establishments are in compliance. Some duties will include, but not limited to: participate in tradeshows, fairs, present at industry meetings to gain compliance of regulated parties, schedule quarterly mulch inspections for establishments holding a mulch agreement, conduct regulatory enforcement checkpoints along key routes out of the regulated area and major transportation routes within the State, and also follow up on any suspect emerald ash borer reports by the public or industry.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: 30 College Credits – preferably in horticulture, forestry, plant pathology, botany, entomology, environmental studies/plant science, or a biological science primarily related to the scientific study of plants or animals.
TO APPLY: Forward resume by February 25, 2011 to:
Ms. Christine A. Pettograsso
NYS Dept of Agriculture and Markets
Human Resources Management
10B Airline Drive
Albany, NY 12235
Telephone: (518) 457-3216
Fax: (518) 457-8852
tina.pettograsso@agmkt.state.ny.us
If you want to enter GPS coordinates in web-based maps it can be a hassle to convert the coordinate systems depending on how you record them. There is a great website that does it for you and with one click will go to the web map you want. It is called leware.net and can be found at http://leware.net/geo/utmgoogle.htm. For a UTM set of coordinates, for example, just fill in the yellow boxes with zone 18T and hit the display button. It will take you directly to your location on the map, even in Bing Birds-eye view. This is a very simple and handy tool that I use all the time now to find locations that I record on my GPS. – Steve Young
A sample of page 1 of the website.
Recently I was looking at species of Rosa in the New York Flora Atlas. When I looked at the genus I noticed that the genus map had Cortland County as the only county without a record of any species of Rosa. That made me curious to find out if any other common genera had been recorded in all but a few counties. I decided to look through Mitchell’s 1997 checklist and pick out common genera, ones that had one or more pages of species listed for them. I looked in the atlas at each one and recorded those that had fewer than 5 counties where no species had been recorded in the atlas. The genera are listed below in taxonomic order followed by the counties that have no records.
Thalictrum – Wayne
Ulmus – Allegany, Seneca
Quercus – Herkimer, Cortland
Betula – Seneca, Schuyler, Cortland, Chenango
Silene – Broome, Allegany, Wyoming
Stellaria – Franklin, Steuben, Wyoming, Orleans
Rumex – Herkimer
Hypericum – Schuyler
Cardamine – Cortland, Sullivan, Schoharie
Lysimachia – Cortland, Orleans
Ribes – Broome, Schuyler, Ontario, Orleans
Amelanchier – Livingston
Geum – Wayne, Seneca, Broome, Franklin
Potentilla – Cortland, Seneca, Wyoming, Orleans
Rosa – Cortland
Trifolium – Herkimer, Schenectady, Cortland, Seneca
Acer – Cortland
Asclepias – Cortland, Wayne
Scutellaria – Schuyler, Cortland, Broome, Schoharie
Veronica – Orleans
Galium – Orleans
Lonicera – Wayne, Wyoming
Bidens – Broome, Schuyler
Potamogeton – Broome, Schoharie
Scirpus – Wyoming, Orleans
Muhlenbergia – Broome
Panicum – Franklin
Trillium – Kings
Cypripedium – Fulton, Seneca, Orleans
Cortland County appeared most often in this list with Orleans County second. I think they would be good candidates for additional flora work. Maybe you can find other less common genera that also have gaps in just a few counties. If you are out collecting plants in some of these counties this summer, make sure you collect these common genera to fill the gaps in the atlas. Happy botanizing! – Steve Young
Genus Rosa map with the Cortland County gap.
The Pollinator Partnership is a fascinating website that deals with the role of pollinators.
The Pollinator Partnership’s mission is to protect pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research. Signature initiatives include the NAPPC (North American Pollinator Protection Campaign), National Pollinator Week, and the Ecoregional Planting Guides.
You can also download the beautiful poster shown below.
If you have ever sought the meaning behind the scientific name of a plant there is an easy website to use called Botanary (botanical dictionary) to look them up. It’s part of the gardening site “Dave’s Garden”. Keep it handy on your smartphone to use when guiding plant walks and someone says, “That’s a long scientific name. What does it mean?”
For the website Click Here.
Bill Buck, from The New York Botanical Garden, is on a bryophyte collecting trip to the islands off Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America, with colleagues that include Jim Shevock, Blanka Shaw, and Juan Larraín. An excerpt from his most recent blog post reads, “For a bryologist, this is a paradise. The biomass of bryophytes, in this area that receives about 12 feet of rain a year, is much greater than that of the trees. The ground is at least a foot deep in bryophytes and the bryophytes sheathe the tree trunks to more than twice the diameter of the trees themselves.” Wow!
Follow his expedition HERE.
New York Flora Association Blog 