Vol. 46 No. 3 Summer 1986 Page

PLANT CONSERVATION: PART I

2 Saving the Rarest Arnoldia (ISSN 0004-2633, USPS 866-100) is published Donald A. Falk m and fall the quarterly wmter, spring, summer, by Francis R. Thibodeau Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Subscriptions are $12.00 per calendar year domestic, 19 Charles Edward Faxon, delmeamt $15.00 per calendar year foreign, payable m advance. Smgle copies are $3.50. All remittances must be m 23 To the Arks with Rabbitbane: Plant U.S. check drawn on a U S bank or dollars, by by Conservation at the Arnold Arboretum international order. Send money subscnption orders, Robert G. Nicholson remittances, change-of-address notices, and all other subscription-related communications to: Arnoldia, 26 Professors and Pursue Shortia The Arnold Arboretum, The Arborway, Jamaica Plain, Gray Sargent MA 02130-2795. 33 Endangered Plants at the Garden in the Postmaster. Send address changes to: Woods: Problems and Possibilities ’ Amoldia William E. Brumback The Arnold Arboretum The Arborway 36 At the Edge of Extinction: Useful Plants of Jamaica MA 02130-2795 Plam, the Border States of the Umted States and Copyright © 1986, The President and Fellows of Mexico Harvard College. Gary Paul Nabhan Ruth Greenhouse Edmund A. Schofield, Editor Wendy Hodgson Peter Del Tredici, Associate Editor Marion D. Editorial Assistant Cahan, (Volunteer/ 47 Renaissance at Walden Elise Sigal, Calendar Editor (Volunteer/1 Mary P. Sherwood Front cover: Lilmm gray Sereno Watson, the roan, or Gray’s, lily, a potentially endangered species native to 59 Herbert Wendell Gleason, Photographer Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Asa Gray dis- covered this rare lily on Roan Mountam, North Caro- lina, m 1840. From Flora and Sylva, Volume 1 (1903/. (See page 2.) Opposite: A Kamsa Indian student of Native folklore holding the flower and leaves of one of the potent medicmal and hallucmogemc solanaceous plants of the Valley of Sibundoy, Colombia. Photograph by Richard Evans Schultes. In the Fall issue of Amoldia, Professor Schultes will emphasize the importance of preserving lore about the uses of Amazoman plants. This page. Bird-foot violets (Viola pedata L/, photo- graphed by Herbert Wendell Gleason m Concord, Massa- chusetts, on May 26, 1900. Used through the courtesy of Heather C. Conover and Nick Mills. (See page 59.) inside back cover: John Muir resting m the Sierra Nevada. Photograph from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. (See page 61.) Back cover: A giant xionmu hs~enmu/ tree m Reserve, (Burreuodendron Longrm 61 A Visit from Muir Guangxi, Chma. Photograph by Dr. Wang Xianpu. Con- John servation of xianmu will be discussed m the Fall issue of Amoldia. 63 BOOKS

Saving the Rarest Donald A. Falk Francis R. Thibodeau

By cultivating endangered native plants a nationwide network of botanical gardens and arboreta hopes to produce stock that can be used to reestablish endangered plants in the wild once their natural habitats have been rehabilitated

Like many desert plants, Agave arizonica which should enhance its chances for recov- was in serious decline during the 1960s. By ery. the middle of the decade it had been reduced A dramatic intervention, perhaps, but not to two known localities with only a handful so unusual as one might think, for in recent of plants. Despite attempts to protect the years botanical gardens and arboreta in the remaining individuals, the species-which United States and abroad have become in- tends to grow in populations of very low creasingly active in protecting and conserv- densities-continued to suffer from grazing ing native species of plants. Conservation is and collecting and was apparently on the rapidly becoming a mission of many gardens road to extinction. In 1968, staff members and arboreta, alongside their traditional mis- of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, sions of display, research, and education. In Arizona, took an interest in the species. coming decades, botanical gardens and ar- Working primarily with bulbils and tissue boreta should become vital for the conser- cultures, they managed to establish a culti- vation and understanding of the world’s ra- vated stand from which scores of plants have rest plants. since been propagated for distribution and in the wild. The Garden has also replanting The Problem of Extinction played a key role in pubhc education and has worked cooperatively with the national The tragic extinction of species worldwide, Fish and Wildlife Service to help locate and which is primarily a consequence of wide- manage the remaining wild populations. spread destruction of habitat in the Tropics, Thirty-one clonal populations are now is now well recognized (Myers, 1979). known from a one hundred-square-mile Human-induced extinction of species is not area. Agave arizonica was officially listed as hmited to the Tropics, however, but is hap- a protected endangered species in 1984, pening in every nation on earth. In the United States alone at least three thousand species of higher plants are believed to be - Opposite: Drawmg of Franklima alatamaha Marsh., endangered or threatened with extinction, Frankhnia, or the Franklm Charles Edward tree, by fifteen of the nation’s entire Faxon (1846-1918). Frankhnia is beheved to be exunct roughly percent m the mld but is mdely cultivated m botamcal gar- flora (Prance and Elias, 1977; Ayensu and dens and elsewhere Many dramngs by Faxon, both DeFilipps, 1978). Agencies of the Federal and m this previously pubhshed unpubhshed, appear Government with these issue of Amoldia. Most are from materials in the Ar- charged protecting chives of the Arnold Arboretum. species-most notably the Office of Endan- 4

gered Species in the Fish and Wildlife Ser- country. vice-operate on severely limited budgets Meanwhile, extinction accelerates. Com- and simply do not have the means to eval- mercial, industrial, and agricultural "de- uate the status of the thousands of plant taxa velopment" continues to destroy tens of that have been proposed under the terms of thousands of acres yearly; much of this land the Endangered Species Act (Anonymous, is logged, mined, or converted for recrea- 1984a). Moreover, very few taxa-one tional uses, even though it technically re- hundred as of this writing-have survived mains "protected" under the jurisdiction of the administrative procedure for officially a Federal or state agency, such as the Bureau listing a taxon as "endangered" under the of Land Management. Other sources of dan- provisions of the Act (Anonymous, 1984b), ger are more subtle but no less insidious. though they may have such status under Elias (1977) estimates that twenty-two per- state laws. In fact, however, plants do not cent of the flora of the United States consists receive the same degree of protection that of naturalized species, many of which (Lyth- animals do because the law regards them as rum salicaria, the common purple loose- part of the property on which they grow and hence may be privately owned. Thus, under the current formulation of the Act, the sale and interstate transport of endangered plants is restricted, but the destruction or taking of wild individuals from private land tech- nically is not. The Act’s primary effect is to prevent the use of Federal funds for projects that would destroy or alter the habitats of endangered taxa. In this context, when the presence of rare plants might hold up com- mercial-development projects, it is not un- usual for wild populations of rare plants to be destroyed before anyone can protect their habitats permanently. Other Federal agen- cies (such as the Forest Service, Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management) cooperate with the Office of Endangered Species by law-but they, too, have competing de- mands for their budgets and for the land they control, especially since Congress is not uniformly friendly to the protection of en- dangered species when there is a conflict. Outside of the Federal Government, a single private conservation organization-The Na- ture Conservancy-has been almost solely for the vast of natural- responsible majority Calochortus obispoensis Lemmon, the San Lms man- habitat acquisition in the nation. The Con- posa, a candidate for legal protection under the En- servancy has managed to protect more than dangered Species Act. Further information on mld populations of this species is needed before it can be two million acres of natural habitat prime officially hsted, however. This drawmg, by C. E. Faxon, in over three thousand locations across the is from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. 5

strife, for example) compete with native plants and may hterally crowd them out of existence. Native species have suffered from such introduced diseases as Dutch elm dis- ease and chestnut blight, against which they have no resistance. In the face of such multifarious threats to species diversity, it is essential that every available resource be mobilized. In recent years, botanical gardens and arboreta have become important new members of the conservation community. Although their enormous potential to intervene in species extinction has only begun to be realized, there are many hopeful signs that they will be increasingly active in the preservation of endangered plant species.

The Increasing Importance of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta Recently, Dr. Peter Ashton, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, noted that botamcal gar- dens and arboreta should view themselves as "basic resources" in conservation and re- search. He notes (Ashton, 1984) that botanic gardens have an opportumty, mdeed an obligation which is open to them alone, to bridge between the traditional concerns of systematic biology and the retummg needs of agriculture, forestry, and medicine for the exploration and conservation of biological diversity. Others-Schultes (1983), Lucas (1984), and Synge and Townsend (1979), for example- have similarly noted the potential im- portance of gardens for research on and con- servation of endangered species. The roles gardens and arboreta can play are by and large extensions of their traditional areas of expertise in plant collecting, propagation, Iris tenuis S. the Clackamas drawn C. Wats., ms, by cultivation, and research. A sampling of ac- E. Faxon. Native to northwestern this Oregon, species in United States botanical il- is no longer a candidate for hsung under the Endan- tivity gardens gered Species Act because it has "proven to be more lustrates the diverse functions that gardens abundant or than was beheved widespread previously are already developing as they concentrate andlor [isJ not sub~ect to anyidenuflable threat." Taxa on work with na- of this type are said by the Fish and Wildhfe Sezmce increasingly endangered " to be in "Category 3C tive plants. 6

Cultivating Rare and Endangered Plants gardens and arboreta in the United States revealed that at least sixty-eight of them are Where botanical gardens truly excel is in the currently raising some regionally or nation- propagation and cultivation of plants. Gar- ally rare native taxa. It is an encouraging dens and arboreta in this country have had sign that these institutions are dispersed many decades of experience in propagating among all regions of the continental United and rare and fastidious cultivating species. States and Hawaii and that include Although they traditionally have applied they many of the newer, smaller as well their skills to horticultural vari- gardens primarily as the more established institutions. Yet de- eties and exotics, many and arboreta gardens spite these encouraging signs, fewer than have begun turning their skills to the con- one in ten of the taxa that are endangered servation of rare native taxa (Huckins, 1983). in this country are m cultivation anywhere For a recent of botanical instance, survey (Brumback, 1981).~. There are a few bright spots on the map. Among the largest collections in the conti- nental United States is that of the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, which maintains in cultivation thirty-eight protected taxa, including three Federally listed species and candidates for listing such as Shortia galacifolia. Another significant collection is that of the Garden in the Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts, which cur- rently has more than two hundred fifty spec- imens of plants representing eighteen re- gionally or nationally endangered taxa. The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Ari- zona, cultivates thirty rare native taxa, sev- enteen of which are either listed or proposed for listing on the Federal Government’s "List of Endangered Plant Species." Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, California, conserves upwards of one hundred rare or threatened native plants, in- cluding major collections of Arctostaphylos (manzanita), Ceanothus, and Dudleya (live- forever). In Hawaii, the Waimea Arboretum currently cultivates over three hundred taxa that are rare or endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Other gardens that cultivate threat- Elliottia racemosa Muhlenb. ex the Elliott, Georgia ened or endangered species include the State plume, a member of the Encaceae. A deciduous shrub Arboretum of Utah in Salt Lake Bok that reaches twenty feet m height, this is the only City; species m the genus. It ~s natme to eastern Georgia Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida; the and southern South Carolma The Fish and Wildhfe Denver Botanic Gardens; the University of Sermce has Elliottia racemosa m Category 3C placed Nebraska Statewide and the San The drawing, which is by C E. Faxon, is from the Arboretum; Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. Antonio Botanical Center. 7

Numbers are not the whole picture, of rare species as part of an overall accessions course; in some cases, botanical gardens are policy that emphasizes native plants of the actually growing the last living individuals Northeast, particularly New England. The of a species that has been extirpated from Garden’s collection currently includes pop- the wild. The Fairchild Tropical Garden in ulations of Trollius laxus (spreading globe- Miami maintains specimens of Goetzia ele- flower), Helonias bullata (swamp pink), Sa- gans from Puerto Rico, a species that has batia kennedyana (Plymouth gentian), and been reduced to one plant in the wild. The several unusual species of Sarracenia plant appears to be self-incompatible, so the (pitcher plants). The Garden also maintains plants at the Garden (which were propagated species from other regions, such as Echina- from root cuttings) may soon be the only cea tennesseensis (Tennessee coneflower) remaining living individuals of the species. and Shortia galacifolia (Oconee bells). The Fairchild also cultivates Amyris balsa- minifera, a plant once found in the subtrop- ical hummocks of southern Florida. All of the wild United States populations have dis- appeared, though the species is still rela- tively common in Central America and South America.

Franklinia The best known example of the cultivation of a species no longer found in the wild is, of course, Frankhnia alatamaha. The spe- cies was observed by John and William Bar- tram along the Alatamaha River in Georgia in 1765 but never elsewhere. The last person to see the plant in the wild, Dr. Moses Mar- shall, revisited the site in 1790 and found Franklima to be locally plentiful over an area of two to three acres. It has not been seen in the wild since and is presumed to have been extirpated. It has found an alter- native niche, however, as a cultivated orna- mental and is now widely grown. All living specimens are descendants of the material collected in 1790 by Marshall (Barnhart, 1933; Harper and Leeds, 1937). Predictably, some of the most successful work with endangered species has been done by gardens that have given native plants high pnority in their accessions and collec- tions policies. The staff of the Garden in the Camassia cusickm S Wats., a native to north- Woods in for is species Massachusetts, example, eastern Oregon and to Idaho. It is m Category 3C. able to maintain the Garden’s collection of Drawmg by C. E. Faxon. 8

A diagram illustratmg the several categones of rare (and extmct) plants.

Another excellent example of commit- have recognized conservation as a priority ment to threatened native plants is the new and are beginning to integrate endangered Transition Zone Horticultural Institute in species into their permanent collections. Flagstaff, Arizona, which operates The Ar- A particular application of the skill of gar- boretum at Flagstaff. The Institute’s charter dens in cultivation is the transplanting of specifically commits the Arboretum to the wild plants into a cultivated setting as part cultivation and conservation of rare and en- of an emergency "plant-rescue" program. dangered taxa from its region whenever pos- The plant-rescue program at the North Car- sible. As a result, the Institute has been able olina Botanical Garden has operated for over to acquire a collection that includes several fifteen years and is among the oldest in the endangered species of Pediocactus, Cow- country, sending staff and volunteers to doz- ania, and Sclerocactus. ens of sites threatened with imminent de- Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden struction. The program is designed to pre- in Hawaii has stated in its accessions policy serve plants when all attempts to protect that a "primary role" will be to cultivate their habitats have failed. One recent series endangered plant species and to distribute of expeditions managed to transplant over them widely. It is committed to working twenty-five hundred plants of Shortia gala- with national and international conserva- ci f olia from a site slated for recreational de- tion efforts. Another important Hawaiian velopment-ironically, the construction of a garden is the Pacific Tropical Botanical Gar- hiking path-by a power company. An ex- den, which has been chartered by the United cursion to another, isolated Shortia site was States Congress to work toward the conser- also successful even though the team had to vation of endangered plants. Other larger be ferried to the site by motorboat. Other and more established institutions, such as collecting trips have yielded living material the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, of Camassia scilloides, Trillium pusillum, 9

and Kalmia cuneata. Plants are transported either bare-rooted or m blocks of soil and are reestablished in the Garden. In every case, collectors obtained permission from the landowner to enter a site and to remove plants. Efforts to secure permanent protec- tion for plants in their natural habitats continue. Rescue operations are not always success- ful, even when arrangements seem secure. For mstance, the Berry Botanic Garden was scheduled to collect seeds and plants from the largest remaining population of Loma- tium bradshawii, which was situated in a city park in Eugene, Oregon. Unfortunately, the Parks Department’s grounds crew was not informed of the arrangement and mowed the entire population before the fruits ripened. Species that are rare in the wild are not necessarily difficult to raise in cultivation. Many are rare simply because their poor abilities to compete restrict them to a nar- row range of habitat types in the wild. If the necessary habitat is threatened, then the species is threatened. An example is Sabatia kennedyana (Plymouth gentian), which C. E. Faxon’s cahfomicum A. grows on the sandy margins of ponds on dramng of Cypnpedium the Nauve to Cahfomia Massachusetts. Given the Gray, Cahforma lady’s-shpper Cape Cod, proper and Oregon, Cypnpedmm cahfomicum is also m Cat- conditions under cultivation and unimpeded egory 3C. by other species, the plant thrives. A recent transplant experiment in England revealed that, of a group of very rare plants, only a fully two-thirds of the endangered species third were unusually difficult to raise, while native to the United States belong to genera another third were actually weedy (Cranston of proven horticultural merit. Among them and Valentme, 1983)! are endangered lilies, larkspurs, orchids, roses, rhododendrons, heathers, asters, col- Horticultural Value umbines, violets, meadowbeauties, phloxes, daisies, sunflowers, and gentians, as well as Genetic conservation is not the only reason oaks, hollies, birches, pines, cypresses, and for raising endangered plants. Many of them many cacti. are stunningly beautiful as well. While some With a few notable exceptions, the color endangered taxa are not especially attrac- and form of native species in the garden tend tive, Dr. Linda R. McMahan of the Center to be subtle and understated rather than for Plant Conservation (formerly of the showy. One would not pit Hydrastis cana- World Wildlife Fund-U.S.) estimates that densis (goldenseal) against the latest gener- 10

ation of Holland’s tulips, for instance. Con- the goal is "to preserve a representative ge- sequently, in botanical gardens the most netic sample of each endangered species in successful horticultural applications often Oregon as insurance against extinction of are those that integrate plantings of native the species in the wild." Collecting for the species into their natural settings. At the facility is done by Garden staff and volun- Garden in the Woods, for example, natural- teers, and emphasizes species that are istic plantings are maintained in a diversity clearly endangered m the wild but that have of habitats, including acid- and limestone- not yet been accorded formal protection un- woodland, pine-barren, meadow, bog, and der the Endangered Species Act. Specimens pond environments. Another example is the are stored at minus 18 Celsius (0 Fahrenheit) United States National Arboretum in Wash- in sealed glass vials in which the relative ington, D.C., where over twenty nationally humidity is kept below five percent. Among rare species are grown in Fern Valley, which the plants currently in storage are species of is maintained as a natural woodland. Simi- Lomatium, Arabis, Astragalus, Lewisia, and larly, the Holden Arboretum in Mentor, Lilium. Viability trials are conducted peri- Ohio, works with some thirty-six endan- odically to determine how long the seeds gered plants in seventeen representative remain alive, and their rates of germination. habitat plantings, including woodland, Because many specimens may be kept eas- stream- or marsh-border, prairie, and wet- ily, seed storage provides perhaps the sim- meadow plantings. The North Carolina Bo- plest means for gardens to maintain ade- tanical Garden maintains collections in sev- eral habitat types typical of the southeastern mountains and coastal plain. The Desert Bo- tanical Garden in Phoenix integrates its rare-species plantings into a variety of Son- oran Desert habitat types, including a shal- low alkaline plain and a rocky outcrop, where the plants are kept alongside other species associated with them in the wild. In these settings, native plants (including those that are endangered) can be best appreciated for their natural aesthetic virtues.

Seed Storage Besides raising plants in greenhouses and out-of-doors, botanical gardens can maintain living plant material in storage facilities, such as low-temperature seed banks. An ex- . ample is the Rare and Endangered Seed Bank at the Botanic in Or- Berry Garden Portland, Lonicera hirsuta Eat., the hairy honeysuckle, which egon. Initiated in 1982, the Seed Bank cur- ranges from Quebec to Pennsylvania and west to Ne- rently includes seeds of over one hundred braska. It is hsted as endangered m Massachusetts by the Massachusetts Division of Fishenes and Wildlife rare and found in Ore- endangered species but does not appear on the Federal hst. Dramng by C. gon. Curator Julie Kierstead observes that E. Faxon. 111

quate populations of plants, making it chemistry, for instance, when there are only possible to preserve a greater cross-section a dozen individuals left in the wild. Dr. of the genetic diversity of each species. The Thomas S. Elias of Rancho Santa Ana Bo- cost per species can be quite low also, es- tanic Garden observes (Elias, 1977) that "the pecially if the garden is able to use an exist- threatened and endangered species are one ing facility that has been made available for of the poorest-known assemblages of plants the purpose. in the U.S. Little is known about their nat- The United States Department of Agri- ural history, their reproductive mechanisms culture, which operates the largest seed- or their life cycles." As a response to this storage facilities in the United States, has problem, he suggests that botanic gardens begun to work on the conservation of seeds and arboreta can play a major role in the of endangered American plants. The Depart- preservation of endangered species by as- ment’s interest arises in part because many suming "a leadership role in the study of the native species belong to genera with impor- natural history and life cycle of such endan- tant food, fiber, oil, or horticultural species. gered plant groups as the cacti, orchids, cy- But the Department’s mandate is even cads, some of the attractive wild flowers, broader than this, encompassing conserva- and others." tion work through the Forest Service and the Agricultural Research Service. The National Plant Germplasm System, which includes the National Seed Storage Laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, along with several other facilities nationwide, is now conducting trial storage of rare species through the Cen- ter for Plant Conservation. Readers inter- ested in details about current seed-storage work should refer to the review article by Holden and Williams (1984).

Research In its 1978 report, Conservation of Germ- plasm Resources, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sci- ences concluded that one of the most im- portant facets of a botanic garden’s involve- ment with endangered plant species is the opportunity to perform significant research (Committee on Germplasm Resources, 1978). Many of the rarest and most unusual species in the United States are virtually unstudied beyond basic botanical descrip- tion, because of the difficulty of working Rhododendron maximum L., the great laurel, or rose- bay, a species hsted m Massachusetts as threatened. with in the wild. It is populations hardly Like Lomcera hirsuta, it does not appear on the Federal possible to study thoroughly a species’s bio- hst. Drawing by C. E. Faxon. 12

Only recently has the role of experimental populations and by the necessity to avoid cultivation in relation to habitat conserva- damaging any of the wild individuals. Dr. tion been recognized in the United States. Robert E. Cook, Director of Cornell Planta- Frequently, habitat managers have to base tions at Cornell University in Ithaca, New recovery and management plans on inade- York, explains (Cook, 1984): data about the in their care. quate species Many recovery plans fall to place sufficient em- Consequently, the wild populations of a spe- phasis on critical components of the natural his- cies may continue to decline, despite con- tory of all life stages of a species. Furthermore, tinued efforts at preservation. Particularly in because individuals of endangered species are rare and irreplaceable, experimental manipulations are the case of very rare species, research is fur- seldom and cannot ther hindered the of the feasible, recovery procedures by inaccessibility be tested. We believe that the preservation of en- dangered plants depends upon an understandmg of the population biology of each species. By bringing plants into cultivation, a garden may then propagate a large number of ex- pendable individuals that can be subjected to types of experimental treatment never de- sirable-or even possible-in the wild. Gar- dens can thus make a valuable contribution to species management, especially by pro- viding data on environmental tolerances, growth requirements, physiology, and life histories. When coupled with field studies of population dynamics, pollinators, and as- sociated species in the wild, for example, the data can begin to suggest the best line of management. Garden-based ex situ research is increasingly being joined with fieldwork at institutions such as Cornell and the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, to provide a solid scientific footing for conservation. Many gardens, of course, are already par- ticipating in research on the biology of en- dangered plants. In many cases, simply at- tempting to cultivate a species will require research, since so few of the plants have ever been cultivated. The normal of factors Monardella leucocephala A. Gray, the Merced monar- range della, which was native to Merced and Stamslaus that can be manipulated-soil composition, counties m Cahforma but which now appears to be moisture, pH, sunlight, fertilization, strati- extmct m the mld. The Fish and Wildlife Service has and so on-constitutes an placed Monardella leucocephala In Category 1, which fication, impor- means that enough information is available to justify tant contribution to understanding the bi- giving it immediate protection under the Endangered ology of the species. As William E. Species Act This drawmg is by Adel Hagar of the at Center for Plant Conservation and is used tmth her Brumback, propagator the Garden in the permission. Woods, observes (Brumback, 1983): 13

Propagation research can provide important m- Trollius laxus (spreading globeflower) under sights into a species’ behavior m the wild. For contract to the Ohio Department of Natural instance, what might account for a species’ ease Resources Holden is of propagation and cultivation m the controlled (ODNR). investigating environment of a botamcal garden while the wild the cultural requirements of the species in populations continue to decline? For each species, the Arboretum. ODNR is using their rec- the answer in lies the long-term study of the spe- ommendations to manage the remaining cies’ but research can biology, propagation supply wild populations of Trollius in Ohio. Simi- valuable mformation regarding the potential suc- the Transition Zone Horticultural In- cess of the species under "ideal" conditions m the larly, wild. stitute in Flagstaff, Arizona, and Comell Plantations, among other gardens, are work- ing under contract with the Fish and Wild- A notable example of such research is cur- life Service to help develop more accurate rently being conducted by Brian Parsons and and effective "recovery plans" for an in- Tom Yates at the Holden Arboretum on creasing number of endangered species.

Oreonana purpurascens Shevock ~ Constance, the purple mountain parsley. Endemic to Tulare County, Califorma, this species is m Category 2-i.e., it is a candidate for protection under the terms of the Endangered Species Act, but more information about it mll be required before it can be proposed for hsung. This drawmg was done by Amy Eisenberg and is used mth her permission. Copynght © 1981 by Amy Eisenberg. 14

Conservation of Habitat and One area where gardens have been partic- Reintroduction: Closing the Circle ularly active is in the reconstruction of hab- itat types and the reconstruction of damaged In the run success in the will long gardens habitats. An instance is the Prairie Resto- be a hollow victory if it does not enhance ration Project at the University of Wiscon- efforts to conserve in their native species sin. The directed Dr. William Jor- habitats. of the instances cited in this Project, by Many dan, has included both scientific study and article are the result of close cooperation experimental re-creation of northern-prairie among botanical and agencies that gardens types. The University also publishes Resto- manage natural habitats. Much of the co- ration and Management Notes, a semian- operation naturally revolves around the gar- nual journal devoted to the reconstruction dens’s ability to perform or assist in re- of damaged habitats. A recent instance of a search. By learning more about plants in garden’s role involved the restoration of a habitat can make more- cultivation, managers of Hudsonia tomentosa that had informed choices about in the population populations been off-road vehicles wild. nearly destroyed by on land in Vermont owned by The Nature Conservancy. The Conservancy arranged for the propagation in a commercial greenhouse of cuttings taken from the site. The result- ing material was rooted and then trans- planted in the original location, thus helping to reestablish the population. Conclusion

Plant extinction is a complex phenomenon, sharing the same kind of interaction be- tween economic and biological processes that is characteristic of all critical environ- mental issues. The conservation of species cannot realistically be divorced from the na- tional conservation strategy. It will require the full range of resources available to pre- vent species extinction from reaching mas- sive proportions in this country. The stakes are too high for us to allow plants of unique biological character, potential economic utility, and rare beauty to be lost. Professor Richard Evans Schultes of the Harvard Bo- tanical Museum recently noted that, "A massive effort is urgently needed to ensure Trifolium bolanden A. Bolander’s clover, a rare Gray, the survival of clover known only from a few scattered locahties from endangered species" Yosemite National Park south to Sierra National For- (Schultes, 1983). It is a hopeful sign that the Like Oreonana Tnfolium est, California. purpurascens, considerable resources of botanical gardens bolanden is m Category 2 Dramng by Amy Eisenberg. Copynght © 1981 by Amy Eisenberg. Used through and arboreta are being mobilized to this the courtesy of the artist. purpose. 15

’

References

Anonymous. 1984a. Two Arizona plants listed as en- dangered. Endangered Species Techmcal Bulle- un, Volume 9, Number 6, page 8. Anonymous. 1984b. Seven plants m southern U.S. pro- posed for listing. Endangered Species Techmcal Bulletm, Volume 9, Number 12, pages 1, 6, 7 and 10. Ashton, Peter S. 1984. Botamc gardens and experimen- tal grounds. Pages 39-46 in: V. H. Heywood and D. M. Moore, editors, Current Concepts in Plant Taxonomy. London and Orlando, Florida: Aca- demic Press. xv + 432 pages. Ayensu, Edward S., and Robert A. DeFilipps. 1978. En- dangered and Threatened Plants of the Umted States. Washington, D.C.: Smithsoman Institu- tion. xv + 403 pages. Barnhart, John Hendley. 1933. Frankhma alatamaha. Addisoma, Volume 18, Number 1, pages 13 and 14. Brumback, William E. 1981. Endangered Plant Species Programs for Botamc Gardens with Examples from North Amencan Insututions. Unpubhshed Master’s thesis, Longwood Program m Ornamen- tal Horticulture, University of Delaware. [A sur- vey currently being conducted by the Center for Plant Conservation has confirmed Brumback’s findings. Initial data from the survey mdicate that fewer than ten percent of the endangered species m the Umted States currently are m cul- tivation. ] Brumback, William E. 1983. Propagatmg endangered plants: Theory and pracace. Wild Flower Notes and News, Volume 1, Spring issue, page 4. Committee on Germplasm Resources. 1978. Conser- vation of Germplasm Resources An Imperative. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sci- ences. ix + 118 pages. Cook, Robert E. 1984. Endangered Plant Species: A Program for Presentation. Ithaca, New York: Comell Plantations, Comell University. 6 pages. Cranston, D. M., and D. H. Valentme. 1983. Transplant experiments on rare plant species from Upper Teesdale. Biological Conservation, Volume 26, Number 2, pages 175-191. Elias, Thomas S. 1977. An overview. Pages 13-16 m: Ghillean T. Prance and Thomas S. Elias, editors, Extinction Is Forever. Proceedings of a confer- ence. Bronx, New York: New York Botanical Brodiaea msigms ( Jeps J Niehaus, the Kaweah bro- Garden. vi + 437 diaea, which is native to Cahforma It is m the Fish pages. and Wildhfe Sermce’s Category 1. Drawmg by Amy Harper, Francis, and Arthur N. Leeds. 1937. A supple- Eisenberg. Copynght © 1980 by Amy Eisenberg. Used mentary chapter on Fzankhma alatamaha. Bar- ’ through the courtesy of the artist toma, Number 19, pages 1-13. 16

Holden, John H. W., and J. T. Williams, editors. 1984. Garden. vi + 437 pages. Crop Genetic Resources: Conservation eJ Eval- Schultes, Richard Evans. 1983. Botamcal Museums and uation. London and Boston: Allen & Unwm. Gardens and Their Role in Conservation of xvi + 296 pages. Germ Plasm. Occasional Paper 2. Kuala Lumpur: Huckms, Charles A., editor. 1983. Prel1mmary Direc- Institmt Penyelidikan Minyak Kelapa Sawit Ma- tory of Lmng Plant Collections of North Amer- laysia [Palm Oil Institute of Malaysia]. n + 19 ica. Swarthmore, Pennsylvama: American As- pages. sociatron of Botamcal Gardens and Arboreta. Synge, Hugh, and Harry Townsend, editors. 1979. Sur- vi + 73 pages. mval or Extmcuon. Proceedmgs of a conference. Lucas, Grenmlle. 1984. Plants: A kingdom at nsk. Kew, England: Bentham-Moxon Trust, Royal Bo- IUCN Bulletm, Volume 15, Numbers 1-3, pages tanic Gardens. ix + 250 pages. 1, 10, and 11. Myers, Norman. 1979. The Smkmg Ark: A New Look at the Problem of Disappearmg Species. Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press. vm + 307 pages. Donald A. Falk and Francis R. Thibodeau, Director of Prance, Ghillean T., and Thomas S. Elias, editors. 1977. Administration and Director of Science, respectively, of Extinction Is Forever. Proceedmgs of a confer- The Center for Plant Conservation, cofounded the ence. Bronx, New York: New York Botanical Center m 1984.

Regions established by the Center for Plant Conservation on the basis of the major biogeographic regions of the Umted States. Several cooperating arboreta and botanical gardens (eighteen m all) work with the Center, concen- tratmg on species native to them respective regions The cooperatmg institutions are the Arnold Arboretum ("1 " on the map), Berry Botanic Garden (2), Bok Tower Gardens (3), Denver Botamc Gardens (4), Desert Botamcal Garden (5), Fairchild Tropical Garden (6), Garden in the Woods (7), Holden Arboretum (8), Missouri Botanical Garden (9), Nebraska Statemde Arboretum (10), New York Botanical Garden (11), North Carolma Botanical Garden (12), Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden (13), Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (14), San Antomo Botanical Gardens (15), State Arboretum of Utah (16), The Arboretum at Flagstaff (17), and Waimea Arboretum and Botanical Garden (18). 17

The Center for Plant Conservation

Donald A. Falk and Francis R. Thibodeau direct the Center for Plant Conservation, the first national organization devoted specifically to the conservation and study of endan- gered plants. Founded in 1984, the Center operates as a cooperative network consisting of eighteen leading botanical gardens and arboreta in the United States, as well as seed- storage facilities of the United States Department of Agriculture (see map on facing page). The institutions are committed to cultivating endangered species in their respec- tive regions; some have been actively working with endangered species for years. In addition to the participating gardens, the Center is guided by a scientific Advisory Council consisting of eminent scientists and conservationists from the Smithsonian Institution, the Office of Endangered Species, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), and The Nature Conservancy. The Center’s offices are located at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. The Center’s primary objective is to acquire a comprehensive national collection of United States endangered plants in the selected regional gardens, arboreta, and storage facilities. Accessions are determined with an endangered-species data base, which allows threatened plants in the wild to be assessed and prioritized for collection. The species targeted for collection are both critically endangered in the wild and not cur- rently in cultivation in a garden or arboretum. Over a period of years, the Center will establish a network of regional collections that will be carefully maintained and doc- umented at each member institution. Over time, these collections should prove to be of great value to both the scientific and conservation communities. In addition, the Center holds research that enhances habitat management as an important goal, partic- ularly in relation to the development of biological information to be used in recovery and management plans for species in their wild habitats. Finally, the Center is com- mitted to broadening public awareness and support of biological conservation through exhibits and teaching in the member gardens. It hopes to serve as an example for international conservation through the development of a strong national program, and to cooperate with efforts such as those sponsored by IUCN and WWF. In order to guarantee the permanence of the National Collection, the Center has established a Permanent Preservation Fund, which will be used to ensure the ongoing curation in the participating gardens. The Fund offers an opportunity for adding a species to the Collection in the donor’s name. For further information about the Permanent Preservation Fund and the work of the Center for Plant Conservation, please contact the Center’s office at the Arnold Arbo- retum, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts 02130-2795, or at (617) 524-6988.

Charles Edward Faxon, delineavit Many of the drawings in this issue of Amoldia they did that of the Green Mountams of Ver- were done by C. E. Faxon (1845-1918), a self- mont and of all northern New Hampshire. taught artist who for thirty-six years worked Outside of New England Faxon traveled little at the Arnold Arboretum, running the Library and never crossed the continent. From 1879 to 1884 Faxon was an mstructor and Herbarium and drawing plants for var- of botany in the Bussey Institution of Harvard ious botanical publications. From 1882 to College. He was a Fellow of the American 1902, for example, he prepared seven hundred forty-four plates for Charles Sprague Sar- gent’s classic Silva of North America. The acclaim that was heaped on the Silva owed as much to Faxon’s drawings as to Sargent’s text. When Faxon died in 1918, Sargent wrote the following words, which are excerpted from an article published in Rhodora, the journal of the New England Botanical Club: As a child Charles Faxon taught himself to draw, using as his model the studies of land- scape and of trees published by J. D. Harding, an English artist, in his Lessons on Trees and other books which in their time were influ- ential in increasing the love of drawing. By the time he was fifteen years old Charles Faxon was able to make excellent copies in color of some of Audubon’s birds, and during the summers made successful pencil and water color sketches of the scenery of northern New England. What Faxon learned from schools was in the Jamaica Plam public schools and the Law- rence Scientific School at Cambridge, from which he was graduated as a civil engmeer in 1867. At Cambridge he was noted for skill in mechamcal drawing. Later he became deeply interested in English literature and taught himself to read nearly all the modem Euro- pean languages. Faxon lived always in Jamaica Plam and did The drawings of fems scattered through the text of this not care to travel in western and except article were made by C. E. Faxon for D. C. Eaton’s northern New England where he spent a few Fems of North America (1879-80). They are, m the weeks every spring and autumn, his last order of their appearance, Pellaea atropurpurea (L.) the concern m Mas- ~oumey to northern New Hampshire having Lmk, purple chffbrake (of special montanum Willd, the moun- been in the autumn before he died. Berkshire sachusetts), Asplemum tam spleenwort (threatened m Massachusetts), and County, Massachusetts, was a favorite field Woodsia glabella R. Br., the smooth woodsia (endan- of the Faxons and they knew its flora well, as gered m Massachusetts). 20

shrubs of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, was anxious that the Smithsonian Institution should publish a Silva of North America, and as early as 1849 Isaac Sprague began to make colored drawings of the flowers and fruits of trees under the direction of Asa Gray who was to prepare a North American Silva for the national Government. This plan was dropped at the end of a few years, but in 1882 I accepted Professor Baird’s invitation to undertake the preparation of a Silva of North America to be published by the Smithsonian Institution, and I asked Charles Faxon to jom the Arboretum staff to take charge of the her- barium and library, and to make the drawings for the new Silva. He came to the Arboretum on May 12th of that year and remamed in

Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1897 Harvard conferred on him an Honorary Master of Arts degree. During the 70’s Professor D. C. Eaton was preparing an illustrated work on the Fems of North America and the Faxons, who were interested in Fems, had opportunities for col- lectmg northern material for him. This led to an invitation to Charles Faxon to make some of the colored drawings for Eaton’s book. The first of these, that of Aspidmm Goldianum Hook., was published in June 1879, and is plate xl, of volume i. The remaining plates of this volume and all those of volume n. were drawn by Faxon. Professor Spencer F. Baird, one of whose earlier papers was a catalogue of the trees and 21

charge of the herbarium and library until his death, seeing them grow from msigmficance to considerable importance; and much of the value and success of the Arboretum is due to the admirable manner m which he managed his departments. Faxon began at once the drawings for The Silva, but at the end of a few months it was found that at the rate the Smithsoman Insti- tution was willing to pay for the work it would take at least seventy-five years to com- plete it, and another arrangement was made for the publication of the book. Under the new arrangement Faxon made such good progress with the drawings that it was pos- sible to begin publishing the first volume m 1891, and the last of his seven hundred and forty-four Silva plates appeared ~ust twenty- one years after he began making the first drawmg. To illustrate some of the Guatemala plants described by John Donnell Smith, Faxon made thirty-four drawmgs which were pub- lished m The Botanical Gazette between 1888 and 1894. In this set of drawings are found some of the best examples of Faxon’s work. In the ten volumes of Garden and Forest ~1888-1898/ are published two hundred and eighty-five of Faxon’s drawings. Among them are eight drawings of insects and their destructive work. Among the plants there is a large variety of subjects, including trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and Ferns. Many previously undescribed species and one genus are found among these drawings. Among them, too, will be found the first illustrations of several plants which have now become common m gardens, and the only illustra- tions which have been published of many rare and interesting North American shrubs. Among these drawings are figures of thirteen North American species of Aster, Irises, Phloxes, Barberries, and a number of Japanese trees and shrubs. Seventeen of these illustra- tions of Japanese trees were reproduced m Sargent’s Forest Flora of Japan. Quercus macrocarpa Michx., the bur, or mossy-cup, oak, a concern" m Massachusetts. In the two volumes of Trees and Shrubs species "of special Top: Faxon’s sketches from hvmg specimens. Bottom. (1902-1913) two hundred of Faxon’s drawings Engraved pnnt. Both from the Archives of the Arnold are published. They illustrate new or little Arboretum. 22

known ligneous plants, including two previ- ously undescribed genera, Faxonanthus in honor of Edwin Faxon, and Grypocarpa, and one hundred and three previously unde- scribed species, principally from North America, Mexico, Central America, Chma and Japan. In 1905 six hundred and forty-two of Faxon’s drawings were published m Sargent’s Manual of the Trees of North Amenca, and in the last year of his life he was at work on some addi- tional drawings for a new edition of this work. Between 1899 and 1913 thirteen of Faxon’s drawings were published m Rhodora, and three of his drawings of Ferns will be found in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. During thirty-four years, from 1879 to 1913, mneteen hundred and twenty-five of Faxon’s drawings were published.

Lilium grayi S. Wats., the roan hly, by C. E. Faxon Onginal drawmg m the Archmes of the Arnold Arbor- etum.

In his drawings Faxon umted accuracy with graceful composition and softness of outline. He worked with a sure hand and great rapidity, and few botamcal draftsmen have produced more. Certainly none of them have drawn the flowers, fruits and leaves of as many trees. Among the very few who in all time have excelled m the art of botanical draftsmanship Faxon’s position is secure, and C. E. Faxon’s drawmg of Crataegus berbenfolia Torrey his name will live with those of the great c~J a hawthorn eastern Texas and western Gray, from masters of his art as long as plants are studied. Lomsiana that is m the Fish and Wildlife Sermce’s Category 2. The drawmg was pubhshed as Plate 179 -Excerpted from Rhodora, Volume 20, in Sargent’s Silva of North America Number 235 (July 1918), pages 117-112. To the Arks with Rabbitbane: Plant Conservation at the Arnold Arboretum

Robert G. Nicholson

New and old propagation data from the Arboretum’s records are proving valuable in the Arboretum’s recent work with rare and endangered native plants

The Arnold Arboretum m Boston Is the great dendrological Noah’s Ark m this country. It contams almost all the trees, American and foreign, which will grow In that region. -Trees Worth Knowmg, by Julia Ellen Rogers (1923), page xiv.

In the fall of 1985, the Center for Plant Con- knew whether a specific treatment would be servation (CPC) funded the first fieldwork successful or unsuccessful. done on its behalf by a staff member of the Arnold the Arboretum, asking me, newly Conradina the to examine of verticillata, Upland appointed curator, populations Rabbitbane a number of species listed by the Federal Government as rare, endangered, or threat- During the fall of 1985, I travelled to the ened. Even species in the lower categories- Clear Fork River on the Cumberland Plateau the potentially endangered species-were to to seek Conradina verticillata in its natural receive attention because any additional data habitat and to assess the health of any popu- on populations is always helpful for deter- lation I might find. Conradina verticillata, mining their actual status. the upland rabbitbane, is a low-growing I visited thirty sites in North Carolina, woody shrublet that reaches only about nine Tennessee, and Georgia for the Center. In inches in height. It forms spreading clumps, some instances, I collected propagating or colonies, since its branches can root when material as the first step in the process of they touch the soil. Its lanceolate leaves are amassing a genetically diverse, representa- bright green; when crushed, they smell like tive sampling of each species from a variety rosemary. The intense fragrance released is of populations. I also collected seeds from responsible for one of the plant’s local the general flora, preparing three hundred names-rabbitbane-smce rabbits dislike it. packets of them for exchanging with foreign (Having seen the damage rabbits can do to botanical gardens, and testing them at the our nurseries m winter, I am beginning to Arboretum’s Dana Greenhouses as well. I wonder whether an infusion of Conradina, processed the seeds according to the Arbo- sprayed in the fall, would make an effective retum’s standard procedures. Interestingly, barrier to nibbling.) It is a candidate for since the Arboretum had tested most of the endangered status. species at one time or another, I already Rabbitbane blooms in late May, its flowers 24

ranging in color from white to rose purple. found along the river. These stands suffer Two-lipped, and one-half inch wide and high, from trampling by canoeists, however, since the flowers are borne prolifically on the the gravel bars on which they grow make stalks in axillary clusters. The blossoms are appealing spots for resting and camping. such that Conradina infil- eventually may Rabbitbane Discovered trate its way into horticulture. A pleasing plant of fine texture, it is well suited for rock After an afternoon’s search along the trailless gardens, perennial borders, and even for use and tangled undergrowth of the Clear Fork as a groundcover in full sun. It probably is River, I spotted a sand bar on the opposite hardy to 0 Fahrenheit, although it hasn’t shore. Remembering that Jennison had received extensive hardiness trials. described it as growing on "sandy banks," I Brought to the attention of the botanical decided to cross over. Hopping from rock to world by Harry M. Jennison, a botanist at the rock, I soon reached the other side and University of Tennessee, as recently as 1933, immediately found a small stand of rabbit- Conradina is a genus of shrubs in the Lam- bane. Half a dozen plants, growing in full iaceae (the mint family) (Jennison, 1933). It sun, formed small, one-foot-wide clumps in numbers only four species, three of which the sandy gravel. Studying the immediate range over the Gulf Coast region of Alabama vicinity, I discovered that the plants would and Florida. The fourth species, a rare be under water during flood stages, since a endemic, is found much farther inland, in a line of flotsam clearly showed the river’s few counties of Kentucky and Tennessee. high-water mark a full fifteen feet beyond Jennison first found Conradina verticillata the stand of rabbitbane. as "Relict colonies in sandy banks along the The records of the Arnold Arboretum Clear Fork River, Fentress and Morgan coun- indicate that rabbitbane is very easy to propa- ties," Tennessee. He realized the elusive gate. Cuttings taken in fall or spring rooted nature of his discovery, for he reported that to the extent of 90 to 100 percent under mist "considerable exploring in this vicinity ... or under polyethylene humidity chambers. as well as in similar habitats in the region Such cuttings transplant well and grow out has failed to turn up other stations where strongly. It was a relief finally to encounter this endemic grows." Alerted to its existence, a plant with the proper respect for both other botanists began finding it, however. modern propagating techniques and hard- Paul Somers, the state botanist of Tennessee, working propagators. tells me that some forty stands of it are now Rabbitbane’s ease of propagation means known; they vary in size from a few plants two things: first, that propagating material to massive clumps. can be collected in the wild without altering In 1935, Professor E. Lucy Braun of the the composition of a stand of plants; second, University of Cincinnati found the upland that large numbers of propagules can be pro- rabbitbane on the South Fork of the Cum- duced easily, making the plant’s reintroduc- berland River, in McCreary County, Ken- tion into the wild an easy process, should the tucky, some fifty miles downstream of need to do so anse. Jennison’s station. She warned that it might At present, reintroduction of plants of rab- be eradicated by flooding caused by the bitbane to some sparse stands in Kentucky newly constructed Wolf Creek Dam. Marc is being considered. The support of CPC, Evans, state botanist of Kentucky, tells me coupled with the Arnold Arboretum’s prowess that Braun’s original stands were indeed at propagating plants, could make it possible wiped out but that others have since been to do so. 25

Invaluable Data Already Exist As Julia Ellen Rogers noted, the Arnold Arboretum has become a kind of "Noah’s Ark" for woody plants, as have other, similar institutions. While the metaphor may be somewhat far-fetched, it does hint at a key issue in plant conservation-namely, that only a few special people get early-enough warning of catastrophe in the making. Bota- nists and horticulturists at botanical gardens and arboreta are rapidly realizing that the knowledge they and their predecessors have accumulated over many decades can be directly applied to preserving the growing number of rare, threatened, and endangered species in the native flora of the United States.

Reference

Jenmson, H. M. 1933. A new species of Conradina from Tennessee. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Science Society 48: 268-269.

Robert G. Nicholson is a widely travelled member of the Arnold Arboretum’s grounds staff. He has written several articles for Amoldia and other horticultural pub- lications. Professors Gray and Sargent Pursue Shortia

Almost from its inception the Arnold Arbor- esting perhaps, since its advent and earliest etum has had a strong interest in and concern years in the annals of botany where shrouded for plant conservation, whether of entire for- in mystery. ests or of individual species. Charles Sprague Sargent, its first Director, was intimately Shortia, "perhaps the most interesting plant involved in establishing the nation’s.earliest in North America" on forest for policies preservation, example. Shortia & com- A number of in the Arboretum’s galacifolia Torrey Gray, species monly called Oconee bells, little coltsfoot, Living Collections are rare, endangered, or or simply Shortia, is a rare plant that occurs even extinct in the wild, here or abroad. Buckleya distichophylla /Nutt.) Torrey, the oldest documented cultivated plant in the Arboretum, is native to North Carolina, Ten- nessee, and Virginia. The Fish and Wildlife Service is now studying and accumulating data on the abundance and vulnerability of that species, to determine whether to list it formally as endangered or threatened; data the Service already has suggest that doing so would be "appropriate." Another species, Neviusia alabamensis A. Gray, a native of Alabama, Arkansas, Missis- sippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, is also under study for possible listing. In 1876, the Arnold Arboretum acquired a cutting of this species from a plant in the Harvard Botanic Garden, in Cambridge (specimen 430 in the Arbor- etum’s inventory); another cutting was established at "Holm Lea," Sargent’s estate in Brookline. Sargent sent a living plant of it to J. D. Hooker at Kew, in 1879. "Neviusia is one of the rarest plants of the United States," Hooker wrote in Curtis’s Botanical Maga- zine in 1885, "being, in so far as hitherto known, confined to the State of Alabama, and there to some shaded cliffs near Tusca- loosa, where it was discovered by the Rev. R. D. Nevius, after whom [Asa] Gray named the genus." (As indicated above, the species has since been found in four other southern states.)( Interesting as these two cases may be, the Neviusia alabamensis A. Gray. From Curtis’s Botanical case of Shortia galacifolia is even more inter- Magazine for 1885. 27

C. E. Faxon’s drawing of Shortia galacifolia, first published m Garden and Forest m 1888. It accompanied Sargent’s account, "The Story of Shorua." This is the ongmal drawmg, which is preserved m the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. 28

in mountainous areas from Virginia to sists of but half a dozen genera and only nine Georgia. A small evergreen, woody plant of species, which are all, excepting the two spe- up to eight inches in height, it is the sole cies of Diapensia, confined to eastern North America and eastern Asia. species of Shortia native to North America; The great interest of our Shortia, however, eight or ten other species occur in eastern is found in the of this plant the Asia. Asa Gray pronounced it "perhaps the history during past century, and in the fact that among all most in North America." interesting plant the plants studied and described and classi- In its most recent Review Plant Taxa of for fied by Asa Gray, this little herb most excited Listing as Endangered or Threatened Spe- his mterest. American botanists never think cies, the Fish and Wildlife Service assigns of the man whom they all delight to look Shortia galacifolia to Category 2-"taxa for upon as their master and to remember as their which information now in possession of the friend without thinking, too, of this humble Service indicates that proposing to list them little plant, which properly occupied a con- the which a few as endangered or threatened species is pos- spicuous place upon gift sibly appropriate, but for which substantial years before his death they brought to him with words of affection and encouragement. data on biological vulnerability and threat(s) Professor Gray was in Europe in 1839, and are not known or on file to currently support in the herbarium of the elder the immediate of rules" examining preparation [!].]. Michaux, preserved in the Museum at Paris, Shortia has an some- intriguing history found an unnamed specimen of a plant, with what reminiscent of the histories of Frank- the habit of Pyrola and the foliage of Galax, linia and Bartram’s ixia (Sphenostigma of which only the leaves and a single fruit coelestinum). Andre Michaux collected a were preserved, and which had been col- specimen of Shortia in the mountains of Car- lected, the label stated, in the "Hautes mon- olina in 1787 but did not describe it. Asa Gray tagnes de Carolinie." This specimen at once arrested his and after his came across Michaux’s specimen while attention; return, two from his first botanical working in Paris in 1839; three years later he years later, journey into the Carolina mountains, where he had and John Torrey described it as a new genus, in the American journal of Science and Arts. For decades Gray and others assiduously sought additional specimens of Shortia gal- acifolia, but to absolutely no avail. Finally, the species was rediscovered in North Caro- lina, in 1877; in 1886, Charles Sprague Sar- gent and Frank Ellis Boynton, a North Carolina botanist, even were able to find the type locality. But let Professor Sargent himself tell the story: The Story of Shortia. Our illustration upon page [27] represents one of the rarest and most interesting plants of North America. It is interesting from the peculiar structure of its delicate flowers, its botanical relationship, and the geographical to which it distribution of the small family Dramng of the type specimen of Shorua galacifolia A. belongs, which, as now [in 1888] defined, con- Gray m the Michaux Herbanum, Pans. 29

Buckleya distichophylla Torr. Top: C. E. Faxon’s sketches from hvmg matenal. Bottom: The engraved print. From ongmals and proofs m the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. 30

searched in vain for Michaux’s plant, he ven- plete its characters and remodel the family to tured to describe it, and to point out its prob- which it belonged. able affinities upon the strength of the scanty There seemed to be nothing more left to material in the Michaux herbarium, dedi- say about Shortia. It was figured and described cating it to Dr. C. W. Short, the author of a and discussed, and even introduced sparingly catalogue of the plants of Kentucky, and fifty into cultivation, although its stay in gardens years ago an astute observer and capital col- was a short one; while the enterprising dis- lector of western plants, which he distributed coverer reaped a rich harvest dunng a year or with an unstinted hand among the principal two by selling plants (and, it is to be feared, herbaria of the United States and Europe. by extermmating them) for herbarium speci- Nothing more was seen of Shortia for a long mens, at extravagant prices. Professor Gray, time, although no botanist ever visited the however, clung to the belief that Michaux’s mountains of Carolina (and the number after label could be depended upon, and that the 1866 was considerable), without carrying a real home of Shortia was in the high moun- special commission from Cambridge to bring tains. He regarded the station upon the back a specimen of Michaux’s little plant, in Catawba as an outlying post, to which he sug- which Dr. Gray’s interest became stronger gested the plant might have been washed than ever when, in studying in 1858 a collec- down, and still believed that it was to be found tion of Maximowicz’s Japanese plants, he rec- about the head-waters of the streams flowing ognized in that botanist’s Scizocodon umflorus eastward from the high Black Mountain another species of Shortia almost identical range. This region was again carefully exam- with the Carolina plant. The Japanese speci- ined, but without result, and the search for mens, curiously enough, were in the same Shortia was practically abandoned. condition-that is, although the calyx and There is still, however, another short chapter pistil of the flower were preserved, there was to relate in the history of this little plant. I no trace of either corolla or stamens. visited, two years ago, m the autumn of 1886, These specimens, while they confirmed the mountain region of North and South the validity of the genus, threw no light upon Carolina, which lies about the head-waters of the Carolina plant, which botanists now the Keowee River, the great eastern fork of hunted for more assiduously than ever. The the Savannah, for the purpose of gaining, if keenest-eyed plant-hunters looked for it in possible, some insight mto the origin of Mag- vain year after year in all the region in which noha cordata, a species which was first Michaux was supposed to have traveled; and described in Michaux’s North American Flora, the search was almost given up as hopeless, but had not been seen anywhere growing wild when in May, 1877, Shortia was found acci- during the present century, although pre- dentally by a youth, G. M. Hyams, upon the served and generally disseminated in gardens. banks of the Catawba River, near the town of Michaux left Augusta, Georgia, towards the Marion, in McDowell County, North Caro- end of November, 1788, for the purpose of lina, at a considerable distance from the high securing a supply of roots of what he called mountains to which Michaux’s label assigned at that time Magnolia cordata. This was not, the plant. The new specimen fell into the as I was afterwards able to show, the Magnolia hands of the young man’s father, a professed cordata of the Flora, founded long afterwards herbalist. His knowledge of botany, however, in Paris by Richard upon a specimen of M. was not great; and it was not until the fol- acuminata, but the M. Fraseri, a species lowing year that he discovered, with the aid which had been discovered a few years earlier of a correspondent, what a treasure he had. by the younger Bartram, the first botanist These new specimens made when the plant who explored the Carolina mountains. was in flower confirmed at once Professor Michaux, m spite of a serious attack of fever, Gray’s original ideas of the proper relation- reached the head-waters of the Keowee on the ship of his genus, and enabled him to com- 9th of December, and although weakened by 31

sickness and hunger, and seriously impeded junction of these two streams still exists, as by the intense cold which he encountered m does the footpath, since trodden by the feet this elevated region, proceeded to explore the of many moonshiners, which led from the neighboring high mountains in search of a right bank of the river a hundred paces below supply of young Magnolia trees for his the junction of the two streams into the Charleston nurseries. On the day of his arrival mountain facing the north. It was by the side he noted in his journal that he had discovered of this path that Michaux, just 100 years ago what he called a "Nouvel Arbuste a. f. den- this month, discovered this "Arbuste," with teles rampant sur la Montagne." I had taken denticulate leaves, and here, ninety-eight occasion before undertaking this journey to years later, I found Shortia. examine the manuscript diary kept by The evidence seems conclusive that the Michaux during his stay in America, pre- two plants are one and the same, or, if it was served in the library of the American Philo- not in this exact locality that Michaux gath- sophical Society; and I had noted the directions ered the specimen preserved in the Paris he had written down with much detail for Museum, it was in this immediate neighbor- finding his "Arbuste"-which evidently had hood, where Shortia is now known through interested him, as it is the only plant which the subsequent explorations of Mr. F. H. he mentioned in the whole diary in this Boynton, of Highlands, North Carolina, to be way-in the hope of identifying his plant, abundant. which, as this region had not been visited Mr. Faxon’s drawing shows so clearly the again by any botanist, might prove something habit and structure of Shortia, which, more- new, or at least imperfectly known. The idea over, has been frequently described in purely that the plant might be Shortia was hardly technical journals of botany, that nothing fur- entertained. It did not seem possible that ther upon these subjects need be written now. Michaux, under any circumstances, could Its nearest American allies are Galax aphylla, have mistaken Shortia for a shrub; and Dr. a beautiful evergreen herb, with tall, erect Gray, who had examined the diary either just racemes of small pure white flowers, peculiar before or immediately after his first journey to the wooded slopes of the southern Alleghany to Carolina, if he noticed this entry at all, Mountains, and the familiar Pixie (Pixi- certamly never associated it in any way with danthera barbata) of the New Jersey Pine bar- the plant which he wanted to find more than rens. There is in Japan one species of Shortia all others. Had he done so he would have vis- (S. uniflora), and possibly two, as there exists ited, or sent some of his correspondents to a rude portrait in an old work upon Japanese visit, the head-waters of the Savannah, a botany, m which what is evidently another region which, for some reason, never attracted species of Shortia, almost identical with the his attention, although it was by this route, American plant, is represented. In Japan, too, following the old Indian trail from the coast are two species of the nearly related Schizo- to the Cherokee country, that all the early codon, while in Thibet occurs Berneuxia, of botanists penetrated to the mountains. the same family of Diapensiace~, of which It was possible, with the aid of the journal, the type is Diapensia, with two species, one to find, without much trouble, the spot where widely distributed m boreal regions and the Michaux had camped in December, 1788, and other confined to the Himalayas. to race his footsteps upon the different excur- sions which he made into the mountains -Excerpted from Garden and from this camp. The two torrents which he Forest, Volume 1, Number 43 described, as descending in a rough and (December 19, 1888), pages 506 tumultuous course from the high mountams and 507. to form the Keowee, are now known as the Toxoway and the Horse-pasture. The little fertile plain which Michaux found at the 32

Sources

General John J. Fay. 50 CFR Part 17. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants: Review of plant taxa for listing as endangered or threatened species; notice of review. Federal Register 50(188) : 39526-39527 plus 57 pages (September 27, 1985).). Buckleya William N. Carvell and W. Hardy Eshbaugh. A system- atic study of the genus Buckleya (Santalaceae). Castanea 47(1): 17-37 (March 1982). Richard A. Howard. Buckleya-The oldest cultivated plant in the Arnold Arboretum. Arnoldia 37(3): 151-155 (May- June 1977).

Neviusia J[oseph]. D[alton]. H[ooker]. Nevius[i]a alabamensis. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, Series 3, 41/3/: Plate 6806 (March 1, 1885). Richard A. Howard. In defense of the Rev. Dr. Reuben D. Nevius and the plant called Neviusia. Amoldia 36(2): 57-65 (March-April 1976/. Kenneth R. Robertson. The genera of Rosaceae in the southeastern United States. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 55(3/: 344-401 (July 1974/. [Neviusia: pages 345-349.]

Shortia Frank Ellis Boynton. The home of Shortia. Garden and Forest 2(18): 214-215 (May 1, 1889). P. A. Davies. Type location of Shortia galacifoha. Cas- tanea 21(3): 107-113 (September 1956). [Repnnted in Wild Flower 33(3): 24-31 (July 1957).] J[oseph]. D[alton]. H[ooker]. Shortia galacifoha. Curus’s’s Botanical Magazine 115(8): Plate 7082 (October 1, 1889). Charles F. Jenkms. Asa Gray and his quest for Shortia galacifolia. Arnoldia 2(3-4/: 13-28 (April 10, 1942[. Alton E. Prince. Shortia galacifolia in its type locality. Rhodora 49(582): 159-161 (June 1947). Charles Sprague Sargent. The story of Shortia. Garden and Forest 1/43/: 506-507 (December 19, 1888). Endangered Plants at the Garden in the Woods: Problems and Possibilities

William E. Brumback

The special difficulties of raising endangered nonwoody species in a botanic garden evoke information on how to preserve the same species in their natural habitats

As members of the recently formed Center are endangered (overwhelmingly because of for Plant Conservation (CPC), the Arnold disturbance by man), gardens will be serving Arboretum and the Garden in the Woods (the the cause of conservation. botanic garden of the New England Wild Flower face similar in Society) challenges The Problems and the Challenges their attempts to propagate and raise endan- gered plant species. It should be made clear But what are the problems both gardens will from the beginning, however, that raising face in holding collections of endangered endangered plants in a botanic garden ("ex plants? The biggest problem will be to select situ conservation") is not a substitue for pro- and maintain in perpetuity the widest pos- tecting them in their natural habitats ("in sible degree of genetic variability of each spe- situ preservation"). Botanic gardens must cies. We will be attempting to preserve their not find themselves in the predicament zoos genetic integrity for an indefinite period of are in-holding collections of creatures that time, so that the plants growing in our col- can no longer exist in the wild because their lections twenty, fifty, or a hundred years habitats are gone. Rather, botanic gardens hence will be essentially the same geneti- should emphasize to their visitors that pre- cally as the plants in the wild. serving its habitat is the single most impor- In practice, this may not be totally possible tant way to preserve a species, and that the to do. In the first place, any sample of seeds role of a botanic garden is to complement, collected from the wild, even with the most not to substitue for, preserving plants in the judicious sampling, will not contain all of wild. the genetic variability inherent in a species Yet both gardens can play significant roles throughout its entire range. However, we by conducting research on the reproductive should be able to capture a very high propor- biology and potential of endangered plants, tion of the variability since it has been shown as well as by creating valuable reserve col- (Primack, 1980) that even small populations lections that could be used for reintroduction of rare plants contain a great deal of genetic should wildlife biologists ever deem it nec- variability. essary to do so. However, I feel that our most It is after the seeds have been collected that important role is educating the public to the the real problems arise. We must then ger- fact that plants are endangered. In the long minate 100 percent of the seeds so that none run, it is the public who will determine our of the genetic variability is lost; otherwise, nation’s policies with respect to endangered we will select for those seedlings that can species; by informing their visitors about survive under our cultural conditions, which endangered plants and the reasons why they may be quite different from those in the wild. 34

Realizing that some loss is likely to occur, present in the Garden in the Woods, were not CPC has wisely arranged to have a large por- as well documented as the new CPC mate- tion of the collected seeds stored in a seed rial. bank under cold, dry conditions, which will maintain the viability of most seeds for long The Tennessee Coneflower periods of time. Surprisingly, some endangered species are proving easy to cultivate. Echinacea tennes- Siting the New Species seensis, the Tennessee coneflower, has proven Once the plants are grown to proper size, very successful under cultivation. In the they will be placed in the collections. Exactly wild, it grows over limestone, in openings in where they are placed will be a matter for the cedar glades of Tennessee, where the soil some consideration. They should, of course, is too thin to support trees. In the wild, it is be planted where they will have the best a low plant, but in rich soil at the Garden in chance of surviving and, if possible, where the Woods it becomes much more robust. they will be available to visitors. However, Other species may not be so easy to culti- there are other factors to consider. To reduce vate, particularly the native terrestrial orchids the chance of hybridization, endangered plants and plants that are semiparasitic or sapro- ideally should be located far from other spe- cies that might hybridize with them. Because there may be similar (or, in fact, identical) species already present in the garden’s col- lection, hybridization may occur, meaning that seedlings growing near the endangered species could be very different from the parent plants. With woody species, the focus of the Arnold Arboretum’s collections, it should be possible to collect any seedlings that persist so as to maintain the genetic integrity of the collection. With the herbaceous species that make up the bulk of the collection at the Garden in the Woods, the process of col- lecting seedlings will be similar, but much greater vigilance will be required of us because the seedlings will become mature plants quickly and may then be indistinguishable in morphology from their parents. One way around this problem would be to remove the flowers before seeds are set, but the seeds are a valuable source of research material, and we would like to avoid the Echinacea tennesseensis Small, the Tennessee laborious maintenance task of (Beadle) removing purple coneflower, a species that has been formally flowers. Another possiblity would be to hsted as endangered by the Fish and Wildhfe Sermce, under the terms the Act. It is maintain only material of a species from a of Endangered Species endemic to Tennessee. Photograph by Robert K. Gard- wild source. This mean single might having ner of the North Carohna Botanical Garden. Courtesy to remove plants if the same species, already of the Center for Plant Conservation. 35

phytic. Furthermore, because they would approximately three weeks after sowing and have to be maintained and continually repro- resent any disturbance until they have pagated for the Garden’s collection, annual attained a reasonable size. The plants need and biennial species probably can be con- three to five growing seasons to mature, and served best in seed banks. some may not bloom for several years more. This information could give valuable clues Information Applicable to In Situ Preserva- to a wildlife biologist who is following tion Helonias bullata. If a wild population declines, perhaps it is because water levels One aspect of the cultivation of endangered have been changed so that seedlings receive species in botanic gardens that is valuable to too little or too much moisture. wildlife is the information Perhaps managers gener- other disturbances make it difficult for seed- ated by the successful propagation and cul- lings to develop. Furthermore, because we tivation of a species. If we are able to raise an know that need a endangered plant in the controlled environ- plants relatively long period of time to mature, this information ment of a botanic garden, questions arise for may hold implications for a population of the botanist monitoring the same species in one or two and a few decline in the wild. Is the decline of the only blooming plants spe- seedlings. cies due solely to destruction of its habitat, Thus, by working with an endangered or has the habitat been changed, allowing in a botanic we can biolo- to a foothold? Per- plant garden help stronger competitors get wild haps the pollination and dispersal mecha- gists manage populations. Furthermore, we have developed the techniques to propa- nisms are not successful, or the conditions a for return to the for the establishment of gate particular genotype necessary seedlings wild should that be deemed advisable, and are no longer present. It is very possible that have built up a reserve collection in case of we may raise more questions for biologists than we answer. catastrophe. This year we will be collecting seeds for But we can also provide valuable informa- the CPC collection from various species tion on species biology. For instance, Helonias throughout New England. We hope that the bullata, the swamp pink, is an attractive resulting new plants will become permanent member of the that grows in open, lily family additions to the Garden in the Woods and wet places, primarily in the eastern United that we will be able to admire them and to States. In May, it sends up a flower spike that learn more about species in gen- resembles a drumstick on a two-foot endangered pink eral. stalk. Plants grow slowly into large clumps. Plants of Helonias bullata at the Garden in Reference the Woods set copious amounts of seeds. Research has taught us that germination Primack, Richard B. 1980. Phenotypic variation of rare and of Rhodora drops off sharply if the seeds are allowed to widespread species Plantago. 82(829): 87-95. dry out after they have been collected, although some of them may germinate as many as nine months after collection. It has also taught us that the seeds should not be William E. Brumback is Propagator at the New England covered with the medium after Wild Flower Society’s Garden m the Woods m Fra- germination mmgham, Massachusetts. This is the second article he sowing and that the best germination was has written for Amoldia. achieved by placing each flat of freshly sown seeds in a tray of water. Seedlings appear

At the Edge of Extinction: Useful Plants of the Border States of the United States and Mexico Gary Paul Nabhan Ruth Greenhouse Wendy Hodgson

One in ten of five hundred wild relatives of New World crop plants are threatened or endangered in the border region of the United States and Mexico, yet little is being done to protect them

Most people who care about and study plants endangered species (Myers, 1983; Farnsworth could easily cite reasons why endangered and Soejarto, 1985). Unfortunately, their plants should be protected, reasons having arguments have very often been far-fetched little or nothing to do with potential gains appeals that do not match the actual eco- from the plants’s products (ornamental nomic potential of endangered species. flowers, gums, resins, and so on) or from their One platitude offered by the mass media ecological functions (the prevention of soil holds that a given endangered species may erosion, fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, yield the hidden cure for cancer or other and provision of habitat for wildlife, for dread diseases. If we should lose that species, example.) Such considerations are far less they argue, we may unwittingly lose a mir- important than the intrinsic right of a spe- acle drug it is "programmed" to produce. cies to exist (Callicott, 1986); in fact, laws This argument assumes that (1) medical dealing with endangered species usually researchers seek a single panacea that could exclude the use of economic or aesthetic cri- cure all kinds of cancer and (2), of the thou- teria for determining whether a rare or sands of species already screened by phar- threatened plant deserves legal protection. macologists and the hundreds of thousands Nevertheless, many lay people would like of common species that remain, none are to know how currently endangered plants more likely than a species bordering on were used in the past and how they might be extinction is to yield the miracle drug. In used in the future. Conservationists often short, the proponents of plant conservation hint at such uses when they argue that tax- have been vague and at times misleading in payers ought to subsidize the protection of their responses to questions about the impor-

Opposite : Four agaves native to the Borderlands region of the Umted States and Mexico. They are among the eighty or more wild relatives of crop plants from the Borderlands region that already have been or may yet be officially listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act because they are considered to be rare, vulnerable, or actually threatened Agave parmflora Torr (top left) is m Category 2 (t e., is under study for possible listing), while both Agave mckelveyana Gentry (top nght) and Agave utahensis var kaibabensis (McKelv.) Breit (bottom left) are in Category 3C (t.e., are currently not sub~ect to threat) Agave cf havardtana Trel (bottom nght) has not been hsted by the Fish and Wildlife Service The photographs were taken in Anzona and Texas by Susan Delano McKelvey of the Arnold Arboretum dunng the 1920s and 1930s as follows -Agave parmflora Sierra Parayto, Arizona, 1930, Agave mckelveyana Sierra Ancha, Anzona, 1929 (the type locahty of the species), Agave utahensis var. kaibabensis Kmbab National Forest, Anzono, 1934 (the type locahty of the specres), and Agave cf. havardtana Miller’s Ranch, near lampia Creek, jeff Dams County, Texas, 1931 Photographs from the .4zchmes of the Arnold Arboretum 38

tance of endangered plants to human beings. kovsky (1936). We also drew upon detailed Fortunately, there are meaningful responses botanical ethnographies of Native cultures to such questions. Before their habitats came of this desertic and mountainous region. under attack, a number of endangered species Among the cultures described were those of provided American Indian peoples with food, the Apache (Gallagher, 1977), Cahuilla (Bean fiber, medicine, or ceremonial materials; and Saubel, 1972), and Seri (Felger and Moser, some still are important in Indian (or "Native 1985). The results, summarized in Table 1, American") cultures. Species (or other taxa) indicate that over forty rare, threatened, or needed for healing and ceremony may con- endangered species were historically used tinue to be available under the legal sanction directly for food, clothing, medicine, or other of the Indian Freedom of Religion Act. Plant purposes. These forty-odd species belong to breeders are now using an additional set of twenty-seven genera, which are indicated by wild species, some endangered, others closely os in Table 1. A further one hundred twenty- related but more abundant, as donors of seven genera that contain species at risk genes to species of crop plants in the same (indicated by + s) were also used. Thus, one respective genera. While the improvement of hundred fifty-four genera of plants used by crop plants through the use of "wild" genes Native Americans in either prehistoric or usually proceeds slowly, by a series of small historic times contain species that now are increments rather than in large steps, the at risk in the ten border states of the United improvements gained do increase the resist- States and Mexico. No fewer than one hundred ance of modern crops to pests, diseases, and fifteen genera were used directly as medi- stress and also enhance the nutritive value of cines or indirectly in ceremonies for healing, the crops (Prescott-Allen and Prescott-Allen, fertility, or protection. 1983). The following discussion therefore What is the significance of such numbers? offers examples of rare or threatened plants They suggest that a staggering diversity of that (1) have a long history of use by people plants now facing extinction belong to genera and/or (2) are being considered by plant that played major roles in feeding and healing breeders as potential sources of genes for early Americans. Because few early ethno- crop improvement. The discussion focusses graphic sources reliably identified plants to on species that are native to the "Border- the level of species, it is difficult to be sure lands"-the border states of California, Ari- that particular species now threatened or zona, New Mexico, and Texas in the United endangered were routinely used in historic States and Baja California Norte, Sonora, times. Because of this uncertainty, we have Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and had to present and analyze data at the level Tamaulipas in Mexico, which have a common of genus. Nonetheless, when we find that history of land and plant use. most species in a genus such as Arctosta- phylos, Opuntia, or Rubus were used for we can assume that the rare Ethnobotanical Uses food, confidently species in those genera were also comestible To determine whether any of the rare or and probably were eaten whenever they were endangered plants in the border states ever encountered. contributed to the well-being of the human Did such use endanger these plants? Of the inhabitants of those states, we consulted sev- twenty-eight genera for which we know that eral compendia of ethnobotanical data, particular species now at risk definitely were including Altschul (1973), Burlage (1968), utilized, a few such as Agave, Echinocactus, Clarke (1977), Hodgson (1982), and Yan- Calochortus, Dudleya, and ’I~iteleiopsis, could 39

have suffered if they had been used inten- sively. Others, such as plants that bear ber- ries, grains, or achenes, probably were not dramatically affected by harvesting itself. On the contrary, in the overwhelming majority of cases, recent destruction or degradation of habitat has more severely threatened these plants than did localized overharvesting in historic times. In several instances Native Americans have protected or favored rare species in habi- tats that were modified by man. For example, Helianthus anomalus, a wild sunflower, is protected in Hopi Indian sand-dune fields, where its flowers are harvested for cere- monial purposes (Nabhan and Reichhardt,

C. E. Faxon’s drawing of Triteleiopsis palmen (S. Wats.J Hoover, the blue sand hly of Mexico and ex- treme southwestern Arizona. At one time this species was m Category 1 but later was placed in Category 3C as more mformation became available. Though com- mon m Ba~a Cahforma, it is not common m Arizona, Opuntia fulgida Engelm., the ~umpmg cholla, a cactus where it receives protection under the terms of the common m the Sonoran Desert and a potential crop Arizona Native Plant Law (because it is a member of plant for and lands. In coastal Sonora, Mexico, the Sen the Liliaceae). Native peoples of the Borderlands area Indians harvest fruit from specific stands and mdivid- use it for food. First published, in Garden and Forest ual plants of Opuntia fulgida that consistently bear magazme, m 1889 (the year the species was descmbed), fruit several times larger than usual. Fruit size appears this drawmg is from the Archives of the Arnold Ar- to be genetically controlled. Drawing by C. E. Faxon. boretum. 40

Table 1 Native American Uses of Genera Containing Plant Species At Risk in the U.S./Mexico Borderlands o: Evidence exists that Native Amencans of the Borderlands have used one or more threatened or endangered species m the genus for the indicated purpose. +: Evidence exists that Native Amencans of the Borderlands have used one or more species in the genus for the indicated purpose, but none that they used any of the threatened or endangered species belongmg to the genus that occur there. 41 42 43

1983). In a recent excellent study by Housley New Mexico. Similarly, Agave murpheyi in (1975, and in press), Opuntia imbricata and Arizona and Sonora is found almost exclu- the rare Opuntia whipplei var. viridiflora sively around prehistoric ruins or contem- were shown to be highly associated with porary O’odham Indian villages. Either by Pueblo Indian habitation sites in northern tolerating or directly propagating these spe- 44

cies, Native Americans have conserved the the wild taxa on an unprecedented scale. plants’s gene pools. Roughly five hundred wild species of plants in twenty-eight genera native to the border states of the United States and Mexico are Potential Uses as Genetic Resources "crop relatives" (Nabhan, 1986). Not all of In addition to their long history of direct use the five hundred will eventually be found for food and other purposes, many plants of able to exchange genes with crops by cur- the Borderlands are now considered to be rently available techniques, but about 5 per- useful indirectly, as potential genetic cent already have been artificially crossed resources. Some genera that contain crop- with their closest domesticated kin. In some plant species also contain cross-compatible cases the results have already proven to have wild taxa that are capable of "donating" their been worth the effort and cost. Sunflowers, genes through conventional breeding or new, strawberries, chile peppers, cotton, and cher- biotechnological, methods. The wild taxa are ries have already benefitted from controlled said to be part of the same "gene pool" as the interbreeding with related species from the crop-plant species. Geneticists are now using wilds of the Borderlands. Genes for disease

Richard Pentewa, a Hopi farmer, and Karen L. Reichhardt, a botanist with Native SeedslSEARCH, pose m a field of Helianthus anomalus Blake. This rare wild sunflower is protected in Hopi fields and is used ceremonially. Photograph by Gary Paul Nabhan 45

Table 2 Wild Relatives of Crop Plants At Risk in the Borderlands of the United States and Mexico

resistance, pest deterrence, drought toler- lists of threatened and endangered species. ance, salt exclusion, nutritive quality, and The habitats of these plants are being cold hardiness have been found in the rela- destroyed through conversion to agriculture tives of other crops, among them beans, cas- and through the development of water sava, sisal, grains, potatoes, and blueberries. resources by dams and the pumping of Though not obvious in grocery stores, wild groundwater. Ironically, the agriculture bemg genes nevertheless are there-within pro- made possible through the destruction of duce. More genes are sure to follow. habitat someday may need the traits for har- The Southwest is, perhaps, the richest diness borne in genes of the wild plants it is source of crop relatives in the United States. displacing. Northern Mexico, because of its vegetational It is disconcerting to realize that the habi- history, is even richer. Yet more than eighty tats of the few threatened crop relatives taxa of crop relatives in this binational region found in parks and nature sanctuaries of the are at risk (Table 2) because of both their United States are not necessarily being man- natural rarity and direct threats from human aged so as to favor the threatened species. beings and their livestock. By conservative Many of these species are "disturbance- estimate, 10 to 15 percent of the wild con- adapted" and, therefore, components of geners of crops in the border states of the two pioneer ecosystems. The suppression of fire, countries should eventually be put on official prevention of floods, and abandonment of 46

small-scale Native agriculture actually cause Hodgson, W. 1982. Edible Native and Naturahzed Plants the Sonoran Desert North of Mexico. populations of these plants to wane. of Unpublished Master of Science thesis, Arizona At few threatened crop relatives present, State University, Tempe. 502 pages. or resource are culti- ethnobotanical plants Housley, L. K. 1975. Opuntia imbmcata Distribution on vated by botanical gardens or seed banks. For- Old Jemez Indian Habitation Sites. Unpublished tunately, however, through the leadership Master of Science thesis, The Claremont Gradu- shown by the Center for Plant Conservation, ate School, Claremont, California. L. K. In The human factor m cholla Native North American Fruit Housley, press. Seeds/SEARCH, (Cactaceae) distribution m northwestern New Explorers, and individual botanical gardens, Mexico and southwestern Colorado. Journal of efforts to cultivate them are now on the Ethnobiology. upswing (Office of Technology Assessment, Myers, N. 1983. A Wealth of Wild Species: Storehouse 1986). The historic neglect of the most valu- for Human Welfare. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 272 pages. able of our threatened and endangered plants Nabhan, G. P. 1986. Threatened genetic resources of the is that these being corrected. We hope poten- U.S./Mexico borderlands: Wild relatives of crops, tially useful organisms-whether they reach their uses and conservation. In P. Ganster, editor, the kitchen table or not-will be growing Environmental Hazards and Bioresource Issues the United StateslMexico Borderlands. Los many generations from now. of Angeles: Latin American Center, University of California at Los Angeles. [In press.] References Nabhan, G. P., and K. L. Reichhardt. 1983. Hopi protec- tion of Hehanthus a rare sunflower. Altschul, S. V. R. 1973. Drugs and Foods from Little- anomalus, Southwestern Naturahst 231-235. Known Plants. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 28/2/: Office of Assessment. 1986. Grassroots Harvard University Press. 365 pages. Technology Conservation the Umted Bean, L. J., and K. S. Saubel. 1972. Temalpakh~ Cahmlla of Biological Dmersitym States. 1. D.C.: Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Morongo Background Paper Washington, of the Umted States. vm + 67 Indian Reservation, Bannmg, California: Malki Congress pages. Prescott-Allen, R., and C. Prescott-Allen. 1983. Genes Museum Press. 225 pages. the Wild: Wild Genetic Resources Burlage, H. M. 1968. Index of Plants of Texas with from Using for Food and Raw Materials. London: Earthscan/ Reputed Medicmal and Poisonous Properties. International Institute for Environment and Austin, Texas: The author. 245 pages. 101 Calhcott, J. B. 1986. On the intrinsic value of nonhuman Development. pages. Yanovsky, E. 1936. Food Plants of the North Amencan species. Pages 138 to 165 in B. G. Norton, editor, Indians. Miscellaneous Publication Umted The Preservation of Species: The Value of Bio- 237, States of logical Dmersity. Prmceton, New Jersey: Prmceton Department Agriculture. Washington, D. C.: Umted States Government Printing Office. University Press. 305 pages. 84 Clarke, C. B. 1977. Edible and Useful Plants of Cali- pages. fornia. Berkeley: University of California Press. 280 pages. Felger, R. S., and M. B. Moser. 1985. People of the Desert The authors are affiliated with the Desert Botanical and Sea: the Indians. Tucson: Ethnobotany of Seri Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. Gary Paul Nabhan, the University of Arizona Press. 435 pages. Garden’s Assistant Director, cofounded Native Seeds/ Famsworth, N. R., and D. D. Soe~arto. 1985. Potential SEARCH. He has written two books and many articles consequences of plant extinction in the Umted on conservation and economic botany of the Southwest. States on the current and future availability of His second book, Gathenng the Desert, has won the prescmption drugs. Economic Botany 39(3): John Burroughs Medal for 1986. Ruth Greenhouse has 231-240. been a Research Associate at the Garden smce 1980, Gallagher, M. V. 1977. Contemporary Ethnobotany where she specializes in educational programs on the ethnobotany of the Sonoran Desert. Wendy Hodgson, among the Apache of the Clarkdale, Anzona, Staff Artist and Herbarium Curator at the Garden, is Area. 14, Southwestern Archaeological Report writing a book-length manuscript on food plants of the Region, Forest Service, Umted States Department Sonoran Desert for the University of Arizona Press. of Agriculture. Albuquerque. 50 pages. Renaissance at Walden Mary P Sherwood

Valiant efforts at revegetation are restoring some of the lost charm and serenity of this renowned literary and historic site The ongoing rehabihtation of Walden Pond the plants that would be appropriate for has been a story of delay and frustration, rehabilitating an historic natural site like progress and setback, caused by a supera- Walden. In years long past-when people did bundance of people, a near-total lack of not visit Walden in the huge numbers they money, and frequent misapplication of what now do (up to 17,000 on a single warm little money there was. It has been a story, summer day)-the woods surrounding Walden also, of copmg with a habitat too harsh for had been able to grow spontaneously after most plants to get established in on their having been cut for lumber or fuel during the own, as well as with severe restrictions on last century. Even the site of a large, turn-of- the-century amusement park at the western end of the pond grew up to woods after the park was abandoned. Now, however, people visit Walden in such overwhelming num- bers, trampling vegetation and disturbing the soil on the banks of the pond, that neither pioneer species of plants nor tree seedlings can get established on their own, but must have protection. Under the present condi- tions at Walden, revegetation requires per- sistent care and protection of plants that otherwise would succumb to the harsh envi- ronmental conditions or else be trampled by the throngs of visitors. The present urgent need for rehabilitation at Walden can be traced back three decades.

The Great Assault on Walden

In the summer of 1957, responding to a request by the local chapter of the American Red Cross, the commissioners of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, brought a bulldozer and power saws onto the Walden Pond Reser- vation to enlarge an existing small "beach," or swimming area. About one hundred trees Visitors stroll along the northern shore of Walden. Pho- were cut on the above the tographed by Albert W Bussemtz in October 1975. steep slope just Courtesy of the photographer. beach, and the slope itself was gouged out 48

with the bulldozer, which pushed some of obtained an injunction to halt use of the saws the soil from the slope into the pond so as to and the bulldozer and then took the county enlarge the shallow-swimming area, and commissioners to court. Three years later, some of it to the southern, lower edge of the on May 3, 1960, the state supreme court slope, in order to create a road for busses and ruled that no more trees were to be cut, that ambulances. The Red Cross seems to have no road was to be developed, that the soil had something considerably more modest removed from the slope had to be returned to than this in mind when it communicated its its original location, and that trees must be request to the commissioners-namely, a planted to replace those that had been cut. truckload or two of sand to extend its swim- The entire damaged area was to be returned class beach. to the "natural forest conditions of Emerson Learning of the drastic alterations at and Thoreau’s day." (Descendants of Ralph Walden, the Thoreau Society, an interna- Waldo Emerson had deeded Walden to the tional association of students and admirers state of Massachusetts in 1922 with the stip- of author Henry D. Thoreau, who had lived ulation that it be preserved as Emerson and close to the shore of Walden in the 1840s, Thoreau had known it. Middlesex County

View of the top of the denuded slope, lookmg westward Nearly two hundred full-grown oaks and pines were cut down and tons of humus and topsoil pushed mto the pond m a matter of two days Photographed on August 11, 1957, by Roland Wells Robbms. 49

View toward the northeast along the western shore of Walden Pond, lookmg towards Thoreau’s Cove, November 7, 1899. Photograph by Herbert Wendell Gleason. Courtesy of H. C. Conover and N. Mills. 50

assumed management of the new reserva- in the early spring of 1980, I began replanting tion.) The County claimed that it had no the damaged slope with the help of four money to carry out the court-ordered repairs. young people. For the next twenty-two years, the damaged The slope, including the so-called "ambu- slope remained barren and exposed. Gullies lance road," faces due south and is therefore developed and grew deeper by the year. In the fully exposed to the sun on clear summer meantime, people began visiting the reser- days. It also bears the brunt of the prevailing vation in far greater numbers than they had westerly wind, which swoops down the full previously, compounding the damage. length of the pond and funnels up the open slope. The lack of vegetative cover, such as trees and which would shield the the shrubs, Replanting Damaged Slope slope from the force of the wind, and which In 1979, I asked the state of Massachusetts, would provide shade, results in stressful con- which in 1975 had taken over management ditions comparable to those of a desert. of the Reservation from the County, for per- Planting in such an environment would mission to repair the great bare gash above require careful planning, a fussy technique, the beach. The state granted permission and, and persistence-even to the point of con-

View of the same section of the western shore of Walden Pond, showmg a footpath as it appeared m the late 1940s. Photograph by Roland Wells Robbms. Courtesy of the photographer. 51

The smmmmg beach at Walden. Photographed on May 30, 1903, by Herbert Wendell Gleason

The smmmmg beach as it looked m 1948 This pho- tograph, taken on July 11, 1948, by Roland Wells Rob- bms, shows the beach from the south, while Gleason’s view shows it from the west The slope m the back- W mn rne scmmmmg beach at Walden, lookmg north ground was denuded of trees and bulldozed m 1957 to toward the denuded slope Photographed on August enlarge the beach. 11, 1957, by Roland Wells Robbms. 52

tinual replanting. When we started work on the slope, only a few weeds, such as a wild mustard, a few species of grass, and some silvery cmquefoil (Potentilla argentea), grew there. Some staghorn sumacs (Rhus typhina)( grew in one corner of the slope and, at the other end, a white pine (Pinus strobus) or two. In both areas, a horticultural variety of juniper had been planted five years before and, near the white pines, a cultivar of arbor vitae /Thuja occidentalis). The task would be complicated further The footpath along the north shore of Walden Pond. It leads from the smmmmg area to the site of Thoreau’s under the terms of the court because, order, hut (1845-1847). Photographed m 1948 by Roland I could plant only trees or shrubs that had Wells Robbms. made up the "natural forest conditions of Emerson and Thoreau’s day." This require- ment limited the species I could use in replanting. I could, however, use annuals and weedy ground covers, whether native or alien, because they would die out once the trees formed a forest and cast too much shade for them. Adding significantly to the stresses that the plants would have to endure were the hundreds of thousands of people who were visiting the Reservation each year. Children on bicycles, horseback riders, visitors taking Gladys B. Hosmer of the Thoreau Society and Almn shortcuts from and to the nearby state G Whitney, a forester from New York State, surveymgg the same m 1957 on and sunbathers on blankets all footpath Photographed August highway, pre- 10, 1957, by Roland Wells Robbms. vented even weeds from gaining a toehold on the slope. The plants I used, therefore, would not impress the sophisticated horticulturist. I selected them for their ability to withstand harsh conditions and abuse, and for their his- torical appropriateness when possible. Nor were the techniques I used sophisticated. The first major "technique," or goal, was to try to hold the soil in place with whatever species could grow in it. Trees and grasses proved best for this.

The same m 1984, the contmued the Soil in Place footpath showing Holding erosion of the banks A boardwalk has been con- structed m an effort to accommodate the thousands of Between the of the and a top damaged slope visitors who use the path every week. Photographed higher, undamaged slope that extends to the on Apnl 19, 1984, by Roland Wells Robbms. 53

state highway (Route 126) there is a flat, mayflower (Maianthemum canadense/, pip- shady wooded area. The forty- to fifty-year- sissewa (Chimaphila umbellata), early low old trees in this area (mostly red oaks, white blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), part- pines, and a few hickories and white oaks) ridgeberry (Mitchella repens/, checkerberry had not been cut in 1957. They provided (Gaultheria procumbens/, and many white shade and had helped create some woodland pine (Pinus strobus) and red oak (Quercus soil. Yet by 1980, this area had been so tram- rubra) seedlings. I covered the beds lightly pled by the ever-increasing crowds of visitors with leaves, placing sticks on the leaves to that the ground was completely bare of veg- keep them from blowing away. I was delighted etation. There was not a single tree seedling that, even before a fence could be put up, in the woodland; no understory of young people walked around rather than through trees was coming along, and no ground-level the small mounds of leaves and sticks, spanng plants existed at all. the vulnerable new transplants. By the end In this shaded area, I dug small, crude beds of the third year, when I had moved some of that I gradually filled with plants of native, these plants onto it, the flat area became shade-demanding species gleaned from other green from one end to the other, and the parts of the 400-acre reservation-Canada young white pines and red oaks were thriving.

Timber cnbbjng installed farther along the footpath to arrest erosion of the northern bank of Walden Photographed on March 20, 1981, by Roland Wells Robbins. 54

Replanting the bare, damaged slope imme- covered the newly seeded slope with a layer diately above the beach has proven to be of hay, over which we spread branches, to entirely another matter. In 1980, under the hold the hay in place. The next night there supervision of Roland W. Robbins, the well was a light shower, and in five days the green known archaeologist, much of the original of the new grass began to show through the topsoil (which in 1957 had been moved to a hay. turnaround on the "ambulance road") was We then had to wait until the grass took put back on the slope with a bulldozer and hold before we could tuck in the sun-loving backhoe. But the gullies had first been filled weeds that do best in such an environment. by the bulldozer with the gravel that origi- In front of the juniper cultivars and the Thuja nally had underlain the topsoil. Thus, more we planted three- to four-foot-tall white than two decades after the court ruling, the pines. Though the junipers and the Thuja approximate original contours of the slope at were horticultural varieties, I did not want to Walden were back in place. disturb them because their roots were deeply Once the contours had been more or less established, holding the soil in those spots; restored, my crew and I quickly planted the pines eventually would shade them out, perennial rye grass (Lolium perenne) to pre- and the pines’s roots would take over. Nor vent the loose soil from eroding. We then did we disturb a flowering crab at the east

Restoring the contours of the slope dunng the spnng of 1980. Photograph by Roland Wells Robbms. 55

end of the slope or a clump of flowering cher- sat unwatered at a nursery for a full month, ries at the edge of the ambulance road, all of and, though we immediately set up a bucket which had been planted as nursery stock m brigade to water them daily from the pond, 1975. They, too, will eventually die out; for all but three died the first winter-a record- the present, their roots serve to hold the soil. cold and very windy winter. It was a merci- Harsh conditions and trampling were not less environment for them. the only problems with which I had to con- tend. Sometimes it proved impossible to The~ "Ambulance~’ ~ ~~~~ Road"°~ obtain the healthy nursery stock I needed. At one point, for example, I ordered twenty- Having failed in our attempt to plant the five five-foot-tall red oaks that I planned to oaks as originally planned, we had to settle set out in groups of five in the middle of the for using the same ground species on the slope and along the ambulance road, in order ambulance road that we had used on the to create patches of shade for the native damaged slope. Again, we planted grass and woodland ground-cover plants I mtended to then transplanted the same pioneer weeds transplant there. What arrived were eight we had used on the slope-red clover (Tri- oaks, ten feet tall, which had only a few tufts folium pratense/, common cinquefoil (Poten- of leaves remammg at their tops. They had tilla simplex), silvery cinquefoil /P. argentea),

The restored slope with a layer of hay, which was spread to protect the ~ust-sown perennial rye grass (Lolium perenneJ. The green of the grass began to show through the hay mthm a matter of days. Photographed m June 1980 by Roland Wells Robbms. 56

creeping lady’s sorrel (Oxalis corniculata), chips became available, we added some to yarrow (Achillea millefolium), oxeye daisy the mulch. (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum), and pus- The second season, a crew of Reservation sytoes (Antennaria neglecta). We even gath- workers chopped two dozen white pine trees ered tough clumps of grass from the out of the frozen ground at the far end of the Reservation’s parking lot and spot-planted Reservation. These were planted, their roots them over both the upper and lower slopes. in balls of ice, in two staggered rows, up the We then moved the transplanted oak and sides of the ambulance road. Most have sur- pine seedlings from the beds in the flat, vived, though during their second growing wooded area out onto the slope, planting season gypsy moth caterpillars almost them among the grasses and the weeds. I denuded them. They since have recovered realized that, though the slope was loose and will, in time, provide the shade we had gravel, their roots would have difficulty hoped the nursery-grown red oaks would pro- reaching the deep water table, or even capil- vide. During the first two years, we trans- lary water. The oaks, with their long tap- planted many oak and pine seedlings on the roots, would have a better chance than the ambulance road and on the slope; during the shallow-rooted pines. We mulched all of the second year we planted countless Quercus seedlings with oak leaves and pine needles, rubra acorns. which we had stockpiled on the flat. To pre- On the beach side of the lower portion of vent the mulch from blowing away, we the ambulance road was a cluster of staghom placed small stones on it. Later, when wood sumac. We carefully avoided stepping on sprouts from this cluster that had come up in the roadway. The gullied slopes from the ambulance road down to the beach proved very difficult to control because young people persisted in vaulting the fence and clam- bering up and down the slope. We did succeed in plantmg a few native junipers ( juniperus communis) on the slope, as well as the same weed species and clumps of grass we had put elsewhere. Some spots on these slopes required three plantings because of the damage people caused. One slope beyond the beach area was damaged again, all of the plants on it having slid to the bottom by the time the winter of 1984 set in, children having broken the fence down. Thus, repair of this area must be a continuous process for a while. On the slope across the ambulance road from the stand of sumac there is a colony of sweet- fern (Comptonia peregrina), a plant that holds the soil in well. We it Replantmg the slope. Deborah G. Lee, a naturahst mth place very hope Walden Pond State Reservation (left), and j. Walter will spread, now that people are being kept the holes Bram, president of Fnends of Walden, prepare out of the area, for at last they have accepted for young pitch pmes on the rehabihtated slope m May the snow 1982. Photograph by Lois Clark and Roslyn McNish. temporary fence. Courtesy of the photographers Along much of the upper, eastern, edge of 57

the damaged slope above the beach, there is Progress and Setback: The Prospect of a stand of gray dogwood /Cornus racemosa) Success shrubs. When the backhoe was being used in 1980 to return the moved gravel to its origi- Over the last six years we have experienced nal position, we had to move some of the many setbacks in our rehabilitation work at shrubs because they were growing in the dis- Walden. For example, a large wild grapevine, placed gravel of the slope. We kept them in the riverbank grape (Vitis riparia~, had grown a temporary ditch, watering them well until for many years at the foot of the ambulance we could gradually transplant them onto the road, near the bottom of the damaged slope. ambulance road. While we were working on the slope we kept Across the bottom of the damaged slope, the grape’s runners carefully tucked out of just above the beach, we planted a row of gray harm’s way. When the work there was com- birches (Betula populifolia) and, behind it, pleted, we spread the runners out onto the staggered red oaks, our intention being to road, weighting their root-forming nodes link the existing woods at either end of the against the soil with stones. By the fall of damaged slopes. The birches, favoring open, 1983, the grape was spreading over a wide hot sun, will grow faster than the oaks and area. The following year, this encouraging will provide shade for the oaks, which when situation changed for the worse. young do not do well in open locations. Being The level of water in Walden Pond, which short-lived, the birches will have died out by is a groundwater lake (it has no inlet or the time the oaks are ready to stand on their outlet), fluctuates in an approximately thirty- own. year cycle. In 1984, the water was so high that it covered, to a level of two feet or more, the beach, the row of birches, and the oak seedlings in back of the birches. In response to the high water, the administration opened a path down the ambulance road, rather than asking visitors to use another, existing path to reach the site of Thoreau’s cabin. Within a week, everything we had planted on the lower portion of the ambulance road had been ground to dust. Not a single young oak or pine was left standing. The wild-grape run- ners were crushed dead-proof that people must be kept off wooded slopes m the Reser- vation. Nature is simply too fragile to endure such pummelmg. Fortunately, now that the water has receded, permission has been given to close the path and to replant it in 1986. Vegetation now completely covers the once- gullied slope and the flat area above it. Every spring, groups such as Friends of Walden, Walden Forever Wild, and, on Arbor Day, scouts and school children, plant a few more trees on the It will take for J Walter Bram transplants a young pitch pme. Photo- slope. years graph by Lois Clark and Roslyn McNish the trees to reach maturity, but in time the 58

terrain that the County denuded of trees Acknowledgments nearly thirty years ago will be covered with Most of the illustrations that accompany this trees, and restoring shade, coolness, beauty article were made available through the kindness to the beach area. and generosity of several individuals: Heather C. Conover and Nick Mills (the photographs of Her- Note bert Wendell Gleason), Roland Wells Robbins, Lois and Albert W. Bus- Readers interested in further information about Clark, Roslyn McNish, sewitz of Walden Pond and its the situation at Walden Pond will find a useful (views environs). overview and legal analysis in a recently com- pleted study by David E. Rabmowitz, a student in the Harvard Law School. Entitled The Abuse of a Mary P. Sherwood founded the Thoreau Lyceum m Con- Pubhc Trust: A Case History of Walden Pond, the cord, Massachusetts, and Walden Forever Wild, an orga- nization dedicated to rehabilitating and protecting the is available for $10.00 67-page typescript report shore of Walden Pond For the past several years she has (prepaid) from: Walden Forever Wild, Post Office coordinated the revegetation of eroded and denuded Box 275, Concord, Massachusetts 01742-0002. areas around the pond.

Walden’s most cntical problem is overuse, which is manifested in the physical deterioration of all areas adjacent to the pond edge. Most evident is the erosion of the sandy soil and vegetative cover flanking the main pond path. This erosion is due largely to the behavior patterns of Walden’s many visitors-random trampling of the shrubs and ground covers which stabilize and protect the soil in which they grow, random creation of footpaths, which results m loss of vegetation, and estabhshment of destructme stormwater drainage channels. Efforts to limit the number of visitors have had limited success, and use of the reservation remams at a high level-700,000 users counted in 1983 (this figure is based on cars parked m authorized parking areas and does not mclude illegally parked cars or walk-in users). The very noticeable erosion problem is the cause of a less easily percemed problem-the siltation of the pond and, ultimately, its eutrophication. Despite the pond’s high water quahty and substantial depth, there is reason to be concerned over the increasing rate of material deposition mthm the pond. Bank erosion at Walden Pond is not a new problem. For more than two decades there has been concern largely over the integrity of the pond path, and more recently over the loss of plants and soil. Various treatments have been applied, begmmng with timber cribwalls, followed by rock embankments, and finally a small section of wood plank boardwalk. These treatments have solely addressed the issues related to path integrity-i.e., publlc safety-and to that end have served well. However, the most obvious deficiency of past efforts is the lack of concern for aesthetic quality. Their negatme impact upon the visual character of the pond enmronment is stnkmg even to the casual observer. The conglomeration of man-made elements, and the severe erosion problem combme to create a physical reality which is incongruous with the image of Walden the public has held since Thoreau’s time.

-From Walden Pond State Reservation Bank Restoration Pro7ect: Report on the Approach and Methodology, by Stuart Weinreb. Boston: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, 1985. Herbert Wendell Gleason, Photographer

Herbert Wendell Gleason was forty-four years In his introduction to Through the Year old and living m Minneapolis when poor with Thoreau, Gleason felt obliged to put his health forced him to withdraw from the Con- affection for New England into proper per- gregational ministry in 1899. The next thirty- spective. "Lest any should assume that the eight years of his long life he devoted to pho- fondness for New England scenery here tographing nature. Born in Malden, Massa- avowed is due to lack of acquaintance with chusetts, on June 5, 1855, he had graduated other regions more famous for their gran- from Williams College in 1877 and then had deur," he wrote, "it may be stated that during attended Union and Andover seminaries. this same period the writer made two trips Gleason began to photograph Walden Pond to Alaska, six to California and the Pacific and the Thoreau country in the fall of 1899, Coast, three to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, and is best known for that work. About one seven to the Canadian Rockies, two to Yel- hundred twenty of his photographs were used lowstone Park, and three to the Rocky Moun- to illustrate the twenty-volume "Walden" tains of Colorado." edition of Thoreau’s Writings, which His very active professional life included Houghton Mifflin and Company published friendship with Luther Burbank, whom he in 1906. Gleason’s own photographic record photographed performing his plant-breeding of Thoreau’s travels, Through the Year with work in California. The friendship with Bur- Thoreau, was published in 1917. By 1920, he bank spurred Gleason’s own botanical inter- had assembled well over one thousand nega- ests. Gleason knew John Muir well during tives of Thoreau country alone. the last seven years of Muir’s life, "camping But Gleason did not hmit himself to pho- and tramping with him in his beloved ’Range tographing Thoreau’s haunts, or even sites in of Light’ [the Sierra Nevada], visiting him in New England. Drawn strongly to.the wilder- his California home, entertaining him on his ness, he travelled extensively and arduously, occasional visits to Boston, traveling with always carrying along with him his bulky him by rail, receiving his confidence with camera equipment. A dedicated conserva- regard to some of his most cherished plans, tionist, he was appointed an Interior Depart- and having many opportunities to catch ment inspector by the first director of the something of the lofty inspiration which National Park Service, Stephen Mather. controlled his life." Gleason’s charge was to photograph and For several years in the 1920s and 1930s, observe both the existing national parks and he was the official photographer for the lands that had been proposed for national- Arnold Arboretum; several dozen of his glass park status. Over the years, he would make slides, some of them hand-colored, remain in thirty separate trips to western North the Arboretum’s Photograph Archives. The America, visiting Alaska, the Pacific Coast, largest assemblage of Gleason photographs, the Grand Canyon, and the Rockies, from however (some six thousand in all), is owned Canada to Colorado. Some of the photo- by Heather Conover and Nicholas Mills of graphs from these trips appeared in National Cohasset, Massachusetts, to whom we are Geographic and m John Muir’s Travels in indebted for the Gleason photographs Alaska. Yet Gleason was always a New Eng- appearing in this issue of Arnoldia. In the lander at heart. past few years, the Conover-Mills collection 60

has been used to illustrate the new edition of tographs also have appeared in Thoreau’s Thoreau’s works currently being issued by Cape Cod (1971) and The Western Wilder- Princeton University Press (The Illustrated ness of North America (1972), both pub- Walden, The Illustrated Maine Woods, and lished by Barre Publishers, and in Thoreau The Illustrated Week on the Concord and Country (1975), published by Sierra Club Merrimack Rivers, to date). Gleason’s pho- Books.

Photograph of Walden Pond taken by Herbert Wendell Gleason on Apml 28, 1906. The pond appears here essentially as it did when John Mum visited it m 1893 Used through the courtesy of Heather C Conover and Nick Mills. A Visit from John Muir

Toward the end of spring in 1893, the dale, and clad in the full summer dress of the renowned conservationist and nature writer, region, trimmed with exqmsite taste. John Muir (himself a horticulturist at the -The and Letters time), visited the Boston area, primarily to Life of M~.ur, Volume edited meet in person Charles Sprague Sargent, the John 2, W. F. Bade. Boston and first director of the Arnold Arboretum. In a by New York: Houghton Mif- long letter to his wife at their ranch in Cali- flin Company, 1924, pages fornia, Muir described visits he had just 268-270. made to both Walden Pond in Concord and In another this one to his "Holm Lea," Sargent’s estate, in Brookline. letter, twelve-year- old elder he said of Walden that Muir apparently did not visit the Arboretum daughter, "Beautiful trees & flowers there & the during the trip but did pay a call on the ailing grow historian-horticulturist, Francis Parkman water is clear, & all of the banks are shady (author of The Oregon Trail), who lived & leafy." nearby, in Jamaica Plain. Excerpts from his Muir figures prominently in Stephanne B. letter follow: Sutton’s biography of Sargent, Charles

After leavmg [Thoreau’s and Emerson’s graves at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery m Concord], we walked through the woods to Walden Pond. It is a beautiful lake about half a mile long, fairly embosomed like a bright dark eye m wooded hills of smooth morame gravel and sand, and with a nch undergrowth of huckle- berry, willow, and young oak bushes, etc., and grass and flowers m rich variety. No wonder Thoreau lived here two years. I could have enjoyed living here two hundred years or two thousand....

We went back to Boston that night on a late train, though they wanted to keep us [m Con- cord], and next day went to Professor Sar- gent’s grand place, where we had a perfectly wonderful time for several days. This is the finest mansion and grounds I ever saw. The house is about two hundred feet long with immense verandas trimmed with huge flowers and vmes, standing m the midst of fifty acres of lawns, groves, wild woods of pme, hem- lock, maple, beech, hickory, etc., and all kinds of underbrush and wild flowers and cultivated flowers-acres of rhododendrons twelve feet high m full bloom, and a pond covered with /ohn Mum (1838-1914J Photograph from the Archives hlies, etc., all the ground waving, hill and of the Arnold Arboretum. 62

Sprague Sargent and the Arnold Arboretum, Muir may have contributed seeds towards published by Harvard University Press in the Arboretum’s Living Collections as early 1970, to commemorate the Arboretum’s as 18 72, its very first year of existence; during then approaching centenary. For more than the summer of that year Gray and Muir had three decades, Muir and Sargent corre- spent many days collecting plants together sponded, collaborated, and travelled together in the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in Cali- on three continents in pursuit of their fornia. Muir visited Boston (and "Holm Lea") common interests and goals in horticulture, again, in 1896 (to receive an honorary degree botany, and forest conservation. from Harvard), 1898, and 1903. In 1898, he Asa Gray had introduced them to each visited both Horatio Hollis Hunnewell’s other in the late 1870s, although they did not arboretum in nearby Wellesley and the Arnold meet in person until 1893. Many delightful Arboretum. The visit of 1903 was the ren- letters from their long correspondence (some dezvous for the start of an around-the-world of the 165 Muir-Sargent letters known to be trip Muir was to make with Sargent and Sar- extant) survive in the Archives of the Arnold gent’s son, A. Robeson Sargent. The last Arboretum in Jamaica Plain; other records in issue of Arnoldia (Spring 1986) contains a the Archives suggest that through Asa Gray brief account of one leg of that trip.

A view of the grounds and mansion at "Holm Lea." "This is the finest mansion and grounds I ever saw," Mum declared Photograph from the Archives of the Arnold Arboretum. BOOKS

Wild Gardening: Strategies and Procedures citations from community officials for Using Native Plantings, by Richard L. Austin. growing "noxious weeds," and governmental New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986. $12.95 regulations under the Endangered Species (paper); $19.85 (cloth). Act. This last point should be expanded upon: not only is the Endangered Species Act something to be concerned with (ignorance KERRY S WALTER of the law is no excuse for breaking it), but there are many state laws protecting native This is a beautiful book to look at, one filled plants that may or may not be on the Federal with many spectacular images, most of Government’s list. Unfortunately, Austin which were taken by Derek Fell. In spite of neglects to mention state laws or to give the its beauty, however, the book falls short of its reader any idea of how to become informed potential to stimulate the reader to grow of them. wild plants. Following the introduction, the book is Wild Gardening begins with a very brief divided into four chapters and an appendix. synopsis of gardening practices, starting with Unfortunately, the first chapter, "The Wild- ancient Egypt and Greece, continuing through Garden Systems," is weakened by what seems the Roman Empire, Medieval monastic gar- to be an attempt to use only easily under- dens, Renaissance France, Eighteenth Cen- stood words and concepts, to the point of tury Persia, and into Twentieth Century creating oversimplified and nonstandard ter- municipal-park design. This whirlwind tour minology. Thus, Austin partially defines and of some 3,500 years of gardening introduces then continues to use such phrases as the the basic tenet of the book-that’formal gar- "individual system" and the "population dens were a natural outgrowth of human- system," which appear to refer to nothing kind’s domination of nature, but that a other than autecology and synecology. This different, and very natural, ethic is evident makes for awkward wording when he writes today, an "alternative to formalism," a change about an "individual system" dying because the author ascribes in part to the energy crisis of prolonged cold temperatures, or about of the early 1970s. "population systems" dying out because of Having set the stage, the author proceeds a drying of the environment due to prolonged to discuss the various positive and negative high temperatures. The drying out is said to aspects of wild gardening. On the positive "expand" competition! side, the author suggests that such gardening Happily, the other chapters are more sub- requires less of the gardener’s time, because stantial and accurate. In the chapter entitled less control is exerted over the manmade "Wild-Garden Themes," Austin stresses the environment, and it requires less money to importance of planning a theme for any implement and maintain. According to the garden, whether it be a traditional formal author, the drawbacks to gardening with wild garden or a wild garden. Wild gardens are plants are: problems associated with estab- classified into three groups: woodland gar- lishing the plants, difficulties in obtaining dens, meadow gardens, and water gardens, material, complaints by neighbors, possible and discussions of the natural ingredients 64

and the planting structure for each type "Where to Visit Wild Gardens," is an excel- follow. He then illustrates with a photograph lent idea, but two of the best known and and range map six forest zones of North finest wildflower gardens in the country- America and eight grassland types. While a the Garden in the Woods in Framingham, single photograph cannot do justice to any of Massachusetts, and the North Carolina these plant zones, the images are well chosen Botanical Garden m Chapel Hill-are left to convey the feeling one gets when visiting out. The list of native plant societies con- different parts of the country. In the unlikely tains fewer than half of the societies that event that a reader were trying to create a exist. And, the list of suppliers of wild-garden type of wild garden he had never seen in materials misses some important suppliers, person, these photographs would provide especially those specializing in propagated, him with a sense of the space and mood to as opposed to collected, material. strive for. This brings up a recurring com- Wild Gardening concludes with a series of plaint I have about the book-although the tables covering regional wildflower mixes photographs are beautiful in the main, there and, finally, an "Individual Wild-Flower Spe- is no indication of where they were taken, cies List." It is encouraging to note that com- nor are many of the plants shown in them monly attempted but nearly always ill-fated identified. It would be very useful to know plants such as the lady’s-slipper orchids exactly where to go to see some of these spec- (Cypripedium) are lackmg from these lists. tacular scenes. Incidentally, I find it hard to But, other plants do show up on the list for believe that some of the "garden" shots were unknown reasons-Achillea filipendula (from not taken in the wild. Asia Minor), A. millefolmm (a Eurasian The chapter on "Organizing Your Garden" weed), Cheiranthus cheiri (from southern discusses the traditional elements of land- Europe), Chrysanthemum leucanthemum (a scape design-plant color, form, and texture. Eurasian weed), Dimorphotheca aurantiaca Useful ideas and photographs are presented (from South Africa), Gypsophila elegans that stress the importance of using these ele- (from the Ukrame to Iran), Lobularia mari- ments carefully. A great deal is made of tima (from southern Europe), Papaver rhoeas selecting and utilizing functional masses- (naturalized from Eurasia), Thunbergia alata the trees, shrubs, and herbs used in varying (from tropical Africa), etc. The book seems compositions depending upon the type of to suffer from an identity crisis-does it deal wild garden being designed. with native plants or with wildflower gar- "Wild-Garden Amenities" discusses how dening ? The subtitle, Strategies and Proce- to design gardens to attract wildlife, including dures Using Native Plantings, indicates the birds, insects, mammals, and reptiles. Austin former, but the plants in the lists suggest the presents brief notes on which plants will latter. likely attract which animals; these seem This small book is beautiful to look at-it quite accurate, although the suggestion that contains many exceptional photographs poplar, ash, and elm will attract butterflies which are printed well, and its design is is debatable. This chapter finishes with dis- elegant. In spite of its visual appeal, however, cussions of the use of rocks, stones, and tree I found it lacking in substance. stumps in the wild garden. The Appendix is composed of several lists and should have been one of the of highlights Kerry S. Walter is The Center for Plant Conservation’s the book. Unfortunately, the lists are often Senior Program Officer for Data Systems and Botany. inaccurate or incomplete. The first list,