_t Summer 2000 Volume 13 No.4 Kelseya NE\TSLETTER of the MONTANA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETYJ water, light and nutrients. Investing effort to capture insects for nutrients will Are These Carnivorous only make sense in habitats where nutrients are severely limiting growth but Plants Alt Arotmd Us? water and light are not. In Montana, we have true carnivorous plants in only three genera (Drosera, By Peter Lesica Pinguicula, Ufficularia) in two families (Drosseraceae, Lentibulariaceae), but true arnivorous plants seem to hold carnivory has arisen at least eight times a fascination for many people. and occurs in 72 families. Carnivorous After all, it's the Plant traps are of two types: sticky traps like Kingdom turning the tables on sundews and pitcher- or bladder-traps the Animal Kingdom, and we all like to like bladderworts. It was Darwin who cheer for the underdog. The fact that first suggested that true carnivorous most of our carnivorous plants are rare or plants with specialized sticky fraps must occur in unusual habitats adds to the have evolved from "protocarnivores," mystique (see Kelseya Vol.8 No.4). plants with sticky hairs and the ability to However, recent research suggests that digest the insects that got entangled on carnivorous plants may be more common their leaves and stems. True carnivorous than we think. George Spommer at the plants are famous, but are there University of Idaho believes that many of protocarnivorous plants as Darwin our common grassland forbs may have envisioned? the rudiments of true carnivory. People frequently ask why some However, in order to understand plants are so sticky. Most botanists have Spommer's findings, we have to know a assumed that sticky hairs are a defense little more about the evolution of "true against herbivorous insects that become carnivory." entangled and die. Certainly this does True carnivorous plants have happen, but George Spommer thought specialized anatomical sffuctures that there might be more to it. He examined a allow them to capture and digest animals, number of our common grassland species ultimately obtaining nutrients such as including sticky geranium (Geranium nitrogen from their prey. Carnivorous v is c os is s imum), tall c inquefoil (P ot ent i I la Sticky Geranium (Geranium plants usually occur in sunny, wet, arguta), red monkeyflower (Mimulus nutrient-poor habitats. Evolutionary lewisii) and alumroot (Heuchera vrscossls imum). Drawing by biologists believe this is because there are cylindrica). Debbie McNiel, Troy, Montana. three essentials that limit plant growth: Continued on page 2 Researeh Natural Areas on the lVeb Check out the new web page for Forest Service Research provides information on the purpose, management and use of Natural Areas (RNAs). This website was developed as a RNAs, and on Forest Service RNA contacts. This site is located cooperative project between the Montana Natural Heritage at hW: / I rna. nris. state.mt.us/ Program and the Rocky Mountain Research Station of the Forest It is our hope that information provided on this new website Service. The site provides an excellent overview of the Research will help increase awareness and appreciation for the role of Natural Area Program within four regions of the Forest Service RNAs in maintaining biological diversity and in serving as (Rl, R2, R3 and R4) and twelve western states. reference and sfudy sites for natural resource monitoring, Detailed descriptive information for 253 established and 55 research and education. Please help spread the word on this new proposed RNAs (including many areas in Montana) is easily site. accessed through interactive maps and tables. The site also -,4ngie Evenden FROM T HE PRESIDENT WAYNE PHILLIPS For Wayne's President's Remarks, see page 8 TheManwfthaDual@ lf could've sworn it was Adorned in buckskins, collecting specimens and When Lewis was done, JLWayne Phillips who floppy hat, moccasins and packing them to be sent down and Wayne was among us' stopped at my office one day toting an assortment of stuff river to the Gulf of Mexico again, in those few hours we in early June, having traveled packed away in his travel bag, and then shipped to only got a brief glimpse of the from Great Falls to Noxon for Lewis (aka, Wayne Phillips) Washington. Even birds and Expedition that opened up the a hike he would help lead the enthralled our small group small animals were shipped American West. But what an next day. But by the time we with tales from the trail. live back east, and some eye-opening glimpse it was. got over to the home of Rodd The journey to the Pacific survived the two-month Wayne has traveled the Gallaway and Jill Davies, it Ocean really began in St. ordeal. state and offered this unique wils no longer Wayne that Louis and took two years to Trying to save plant look at the Lewis and Clark accompanied me it was complete. Up the Missouri, m ateri a I for future Expedition to numerous Meriwether Lewis. down the Clark Fork, over examination was tricky, and groups, and he's willing to do For several hours that Lolo Pass and beyond, the we heard of the times that so again and again. He evening until well after parfy traveled, becoming the entire stashes of specimens obviously loves it, and midnight, in fact - Mr. Lewis first white men to ever be seen were lost to mold and provides a great deal of took us back 200 years to the in much of this wild, dessication. It was frustrating information on this subject: all great journey of discovery uncharted country. at best, infuriating at worst. the way from the when the West was still Along the way, Lewis But, remarkably, an amazing commissioning of the unknown to the European collected a wide variety of array of plant and animal life expedition to the rumored sefflers populating the East. natural things, including was "discovered" and suicide of William Clark. At the behest of President plants. Lewis, as Wayne catalogued along the route that If you'd like Wayne to Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Phillips, has re-collected some took Lewis and Clark and come to your town as his alter Lewis and William Clark of those plants, often from the their men to the Pacific and ego, Meriwether Lewis, give launched an expedition at the same site from which Lewis back over the Rocky him a call. He'll be glad to turn of the l9th Century that collected them. They are Mountains. slip into the buckskins and opened a continent to mounted on card stock for In a comfortable living moccasins and take you on a exploration. Known today as display. Wayne, as room, seated on padded journey nearly 200 years old. the Lewis and Clark Meriwether Lewis, was able to chairs, we heard of the trials Don't forget to ask him Expedition, it's a chunk of tell us about each of them, those men faced on the about the Lewis and Clark American history with which pointing out the ones that tortuous trail in the Interpretive Center in Great Wayne Phillips has become were collected in the wilderness - the times of Falls, as well. He says it is intimately familiar - so much Bitterroot, or over the divide hunger; the dangers from the well worth a visit to where the so, he occasionally loses his in Idaho. Even early in the elements and wild rivers; and explorers faced the rampaging identity to another personality trip, when the party of the uncertainties in meeting waters cascading over the apparently living inside him - adventurers passed through native peoples and learning to "Great Falls" of the Missouri that of Meriwether Lewis. the Great Plains, Lewis was trade with them. River. -DN Wayne can be reached at 2601 Third Ave. North, Great Falls, MT 59,101 (,+06)453-064S e-mail: [email protected] Carnivorous Plants appear to be protocarnivores as Darwin sticky geranium differently, and it is suggested. If true, it is possible that they intriguing to think that our grasslands page From one have not evolved truly carnivorous may be "little shops of horror." species with specialized traps because Spommer placed a thin protein film water, not nutrients, is usually more Further Reoding: against the leaves and found that the film limiting in prairie habitats. However, Albert, V. A. et 1992. Carnivorous was digested in a manner identical to that other questions must be asked before we al. plants: phylogeny structural obtained from leaves of sundew. He then can assume that sticky geranium and tall and evolution. Science 257: 149l-1494. used radioactive tracers to show that the cinquefoil are carnivores. Do these plants digested protein was indeed absorbed by actually ingest insects in the field? Are Spommer, G. G. 1999. Evidence of the plants. the insect-derived proteins incorporated protocarnivorous capabilities in Spommer's findings suggest that many into the plant tissue? How important is Geranium viscosissimum and Potentilla common plants with sticky hairs have the this carnivory to the growth of these arguta and other sticky plants. ability to ingest the insects that become plants? These questions notwithstanding, International Journal of Plant Sciences caught on their leaves and stems. They Spommer's findings will make me look at 160: 98-101. Page2 Kelseya Summer 2000 Western Absorbed in Redcedar theAbsarokas ghuja plicata) The 2000 Annual Meeting PINE CREEK Plants in silhouettes of four distinct Paradise, the 2000 annual native plants. We also sold meeting of the Montana last year's ball caps, plant Native Plant Society, brought books, and held a raffle. 2OOl:A together plant lovers from all Winners were once again corners of the state and announced by our own Wyoming in late June.