Astragalus Species, Pynes' Ground Plum, Guthrie's Ground Plum, Limestone Glad Milkvetch

I guess we can call this the plant that saved the Stones River battlefield. An EXTREMELY rare plant, it has been on the Tennessee and U....Read MoreS. Federal endangered species lists for years.

Now the only known location of it is on the Stones River battlefield site, (located in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County). The battlefield has recently been considered for commercial development, but the discovery of this plant on the battlefield has tipped the scales in favor of allowing the land to remain undeveloped.

The species was first identified by Milo Pyne (Guthrie) in the late 1980s. Records indicate that Augustin Gattinger, an early Tennessee botanist collected the plant in 1901 from a location near the LaVergne railroad station (also in Rutherford county). A specimen was also discovered in 1948 in the area now covered by Percy Priest Reservoir (located in Davidson county, adjacent to Rutherford county.)