This link may not last for more than a day or two but the artwork is very nice and the article was on the front page of my local paper. http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus where it is the 1st listing or http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/ci_5056632 which will likely stay up longer. Clarkia franciscana has been on the endangered list for nearly 30 years. The article outlines how a seed made it to some who grew some with success and eventually the plant ended up being sold through Annie's Annuals. Annie has several Clarkia species http://anniesannuals.com/plant_lists/list_search.asp?start=0&type=Any&color=Any&lifespan=Any&availability=Show%20All&view=Pictures&water=Any&sun=Any&count=36&letter=Any&catagory=Any&account=none&searchword=clarkia&Submit=Display%20Results and there is now some whiplash from selling endangered species. Interesting article and noteworthy that is was front page.
Front Page News!
Very encouraging to me that the practice of wild collecting was addressed so openly. I can't tell you how many times I've been a member of a group of volunteers that went out and monitored an area only to come back to find the area stripped of plants by poachers or trampled by seed collectors. Damage such as that, is often times irreversible and most unfortunately... many of the plants end up in private collections where their cultural requirements may or may not be able to be met. This means they die and the integrity of the natural stand was compromised in the process.
Me personally, I'm a proponent of getting anything rare, threatened, or endangered into cultivation. Let the nurseries get their hands on the material if at all possible but monitor the process and provide it to them after the scientific community gets first dibs and gives the go ahead.
This sums it up for me,
The Presidio clarkia has been listed as endangered for almost 30 years and has one of the oldest listings in the California Department of Fish and Game's endangered handbook.
According to an article written by Michael Wood of the California Native Plant Society, the Presidio clarkia was thought to only grow in two populations in the Presidio. Then, in 1988, additional plants were found in the Oakland hills. Genetic comparisons made between the Presidio and Oakland populations concluded that at least one of the Oakland populations was indigenous, meaning it was not planted by the human hand.
Because it is listed as an endangered plant, the Presidio clarkia is protected by the state and federal government. It is illegal to handle or harm the plant and illegal to harvest its seeds.
Other than that,
On the city's property, conservationists are struggling to persuade Oakland leaders to protect the plant from the city's much-needed brush removal policies, set in place to prevent an urban wildfire like the one the city saw in 1991.
In East Bay Regional Parks-owned Redwood Regional Park, the Presidio clarkia is being threatened by dogs that enjoy romping around the serpentine prairie in which it grows. Parks officials say they are now working on a protection and restoration plan, much to the dismay of local dog owners.
And finally, on private land, the Presidio clarkia could stop a development on a 1.28-acre lot on Crestmont Drive. About 10 percent of the known Presidio clarkia plants on Earth grow on that lot.
Accolades to Annie's Annuals for choosing to take the plant off the market after they learned that the native populations could be negatively impacted.
"We are offering this because few people ever get a chance to actually see this plant in the wild," Jensen wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper. "And should it go extinct, it will survive in gardens." On the surface, it seems like a noble cause. People can grow a rare and endangered plant and it, therefore, will become less rare and less endangered. Kind of like breeding pandas or California condors - the more there are, the better off we all are. Right?
Not so, say several plant experts, including a curator with the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley and a botanist with the California Department of Fish and Game.
"People think they are preventing the extinction of something in nature (by growing the clarkia in their private yards), but they are not," said Holly Forbes of the university's Botanical Garden.
People who grow rare and endangered plants could actually harm the native populations of the plants in the wild, said Mary Ann Showers, lead botanist with the California Department of Fish and Game.
The Presidio clarkia for sale at Annie's Annuals is of undetermined origin. It could be the clarkia that grows in the Presidio or the one that grows in the Oakland hills. Both clarkias have similar DNA, but one may have adapted to its habitat in different ways than the other, Showers said.
The way the plant could be harmed in the wild is explained like this: Someone buys the clarkia version found in the Presidio and plants it somewhere in the East Bay, like the Oakland hills. Insects or wind take pollen from that clarkia and mix it with the native plants in the hills, creating a mixed plant that is not fit to survive the hills' hot, dry summers.
"It gets very convoluted and a lot of this we don't understand," Showers said. "The possibility for the impacts to native stems of plant is just too great."
Showers' opinion was echoed in a flurry of e-mails exchanged by members of the California Native Plant Society, whose members split on the issue of whether the Presidio clarkia is something Annie's Annuals should sell.
The plant society's Michael Wood, whose article focused on the rarity of the Presidio clarkia, said people should not buy or grow the plant.
"It is against the law," he said.
Good for you for posting the link to the articles PetEmUp!
"People who grow rare and endangered plants could actually harm the native populations of the plants in the wild, said Mary Ann Showers, lead botanist with the California Department of Fish and Game.
The Presidio clarkia for sale at Annie's Annuals is of undetermined origin. It could be the clarkia that grows in the Presidio or the one that grows in the Oakland hills. Both clarkias have similar DNA, but one may have adapted to its habitat in different ways than the other, Showers said.
The way the plant could be harmed in the wild is explained like this: Someone buys the clarkia version found in the Presidio and plants it somewhere in the East Bay, like the Oakland hills. Insects or wind take pollen from that clarkia and mix it with the native plants in the hills, creating a mixed plant that is not fit to survive the hills' hot, dry summers."
This is the kind of scenario that's possible, but unlikely enough as not to be plausible as a justification for anything.
Even in out-breeding plants, the likelihood of any significant gene flow between small populations of cultivated plants and wild plants is going to be very low unless your cultivated plants are pretty close (within a few hundred meters) to the wild populations... pollen just doesn't move that far.
Patrick Alexander
This message was edited Jan 23, 2007 7:23 PM
She outlined one means by which the indigenous population could be compromised. She never did identify the pollinators however I suspect hummingbirds may play an integral roll in the equation as well as bees and other insects. I believe this species is an annual. What eats the seed of Clarkia franciscana that could be pooping it out overhead in ready made fertilizer packs or dropping it along the way to their stash? That was never mentioned either.
http://www.bulbnrose.com/Heredity/Lewis/catastrophic.html
Other thoughts I had were along the lines of supply and demand. Plant is sold for $5.95 locally and advertised as being rare and endangered, collectors see plant and recognize it as just happening to be the same plant growing in this little plot of land they read about in the local newspaper, people trample area in which plant is growing to get "freebie" of entire plant or seed. Or they trample the area to "rescue" the plants or seed from the horrible dog owners who are using the area as a doggie pee and poop haven. I believe these scenarios play out more than we care to admit and there is no denying the publicity this plant has received as of late.
I gotta agree with Patrick plus adding that without nurseries propagating the plants, they may become entirely extinct in nature.
Just my thoughts and I know many will disagree.
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with him but I do believe we may not know enough about this species just yet and best to err on the side of conservatism.
I am a major proponent of getting these plants into the hands of people capable of propagating them. Seed Banks, Universities, and Botanical Gardens come to mind first. Many nurseries, such as yourself, are quite capable of doing an outstanding job getting a rare plant into cultivation however I do truly believe we have a duty and obligation to try to protect any existing natural stands.
I'm a member of Plants of Concern which is an organization that promotes on site conservation also known as in situ. I believe it is always best to attempt to preserve a native habitat first. In situ conservation is not always possible and even if it was, I still believe it to be prudent to practice off site conservation which is also known as ex situ conservation. There are many benefits to ex situ conservation with long term conservation of the species being foremost. Seed Banks, Universities, and Botanical Gardens generally keep exceptionally good records and are often times more than willing to give back plant material in the event a natural stand is compromised or wiped out. Unfortunately, it's been my experience that nurseries don't keep the types of records requisite for reintroduction of plant material back into a native site and those nurseries that I have encountered that were willing to do so... were willing to do so for a price that a small .org couldn't afford to pay.
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