Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance
Director's Welcome . About the Alliance

Research Projects: Safeguarding Torreya taxifolia . Recovery of Elliottia racemosa . Restoration of Pitcherplant Bogs . Historic Species Search Project . Recovery of Echinacea laevigata . Botanical Guardians . Gentianopsis crinita

Team Tools . GPCA News . GPCA Publications . GEPSN . SERPIN Project . Contact GPCA . Home

Research Project: Historic Species Search Project

Tom Patrick, Botanist, Georgia Natural Heritage Program: GPCA Historic Species Committee Chair

Dicentra eximiaHistoric species are plants that have been documented or reliably reported from a specific area, but not observed for at least 20 years. This project was developed to relocate extant populations of rare plants not seen in the wild since about 1975 or before.

There are about 20-25 vascular plant species reported from the North Georgia Mountains (roughly north of Atlanta and Athens) that are in need of recent observation. Working with the Georgia Natural Heritage Program and the University of Georgia Herbarium, Jennifer Cruse is compiling individual fact sheets to produce a field guide with identification notes, line drawings, and brief histories of the discoveries. Once published, it is hoped that members of the public and botany students of all types will take on the challenge and relocate these "lost species" within Georgia. The tentative completion date for the manual is March, 1998. Examples of historic species once reported form the mountains are wild bleeding hearts (Dicentra eximia), witch hobble or hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides), and yellow Clinton's lily (Clintonia borealis).

ORIGINAL LIST OF STATE HISTORIC (SH) SPECIES FROM THE MOUNTAINS

  1. Agastache nepetoides, Yellow Giant-Hyssop, found summer 2003
  2. Agastache scrophulariifolia, Purple Giant-Hyssop
  3. Arabis lyrata, Lyre-Leaf Rockcress
  4. Carex buxbaumii, Brown Bog Sedge
  5. Carex brunnescens, Brown Sedge
  6. Carex pedunculata, Longstalk Sedge
  7. Chelone cuthbertii, Cuthbert's Turtlehead, found summer 2002
  8. Clintonia borealis, Yellow Beadlily
  9. Corallorhiza maculata, Spotted Coralroot Orchid
  10. Cuscuta rostrata, High Mountain Dodder
  11. Dicentra eximia, Wild Bleeding Heart
  12. Eriophorum virginicum, Tawny Cottongrass
  13. Glyceria pallida, Pale Mannagrass
  14. Helianthus smithii, Smith's Sunflower
  15. Liatris turgida, Highlands Blazing Star
  16. Lonicera canadensis, Fly Honeysuckle or Canada Honeysuckle
  17. Lotus helleri, Carolina Trefoil, found summer 2001
  18. Parnassia grandifolia, Largeleaf Grass-of-Parnassus
  19. Pieris floribunda, Mountain Fetterbush
  20. Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
  21. Rudbeckia grandiflora, Largeflower Yellow Coneflower
  22. Saxifraga careyana, Carey's Saxifrage
  23. Silphium radula, Rosin-Weed
  24. Tofieldia glutinosa, Mountain Bog False Asphodel
  25. Verbesina helianthoides, Flatseed Sunflower
  26. Viburnum lantanoides, Witch-Hobble

For an update on this research project, see GPCA News.

Pictured above: Dicentra eximia (Bleeding Heart)