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CONSERVATION
QUANDARIES The challenges of safeguarding some of Georgia’s rarest flora By Jason Ligon - Micropropagation & Seed Bank Coordinator
This year, thanks to funding from the Association of Zoological Horticulture, the Southeastern Center for Conservation was able to focus safeguarding efforts on four of Georgia’s Critically Imperiled (S1) species that occur in Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest: Helianthus smithii, Packera millefolium, Solidago simulans and Trillium delicatum. These species face an array of threats, including narrow ranges, fragile habitats, fire suppression, human development and damage from large populations of deer and feral hogs. Our goal was simple: prioritize collecting seeds and tissues (germplasm) from these critically imperiled species for safeguarding.
CLIFFHANGER – Jason Ligon ponders the habitat of Solidago simulans.
The pursuit of this goal has provided insights into why these critically imperiled species, and others, can sometimes be challenging to safeguard. Access to the plants can be a major hurdle. For example, S. simulans has an affinity for insurmountably sheer rocky cliffs, making some plant material literally out of reach. Similarly, Georgia’s only population of P. millefolium falls within a federal Wilderness Area, and it will take time to obtain the necessary permits for collecting plant material. Another challenge is the reproductive biology of some species. T. delicatum, for instance, naturally produces very few seeds, which limits the number that can be collected without significantly harming the reproduction rate of wild populations. With H. smithii, it is difficult to visually differentiate the species from its congeners, H. microcephalus and H. strumosus - H. smithii may even be a hybrid of the other two. This makes it difficult to collect seeds that represent the phenotypic diversity within H. smithii, whilst avoiding non-target lookalikes. Genetic analysis of this species-hybrid complex would be needed to resolve taxonomic ambiguity. Fortunately, none of these challenges are insurmountable, and we will press on for solutions to help secure the future of these unique Georgia wildflowers.
STATE CRITICALLY IMPERILLED – (clockwise from top left) Helianthus smithii photo: Kaden Shallat, Packera millefolium, Solidago simulans and Trillium delicatum.
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