Georgia Woman Tries to Help Endangered Plant

From the AP:

The rare and endangered dwarf sumac has found a potential savior in Newton County. About 40 of the shrubs, which are on both the federal and state endangered species lists, are now growing in eastern Newton County under the care of Elaine Nash.

Half of the known populations of the plant, technically called Rhus michauxii, have died during the last century, according to the Center for Plant Conservation, a national group that seeks to prevent the extinction of endangered native plants.

Nash told The Newton Citizen that dwarf sumac once grew naturally in Newton County, but at some point the plants died off.

The Nature Conservancy of Georgia gathered some sumac from a South Carolina nursery and replanted it in Newton County. Nash was appointed as a "botanical guardian" through the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, which pairs botanical gardeners with endangered species that need help surviving. Nash keeps the location of the dwarf sumac site a closely held secret.

Another small cluster of dwarf sumac grows in Elbert County, roughly 90 miles away. A few also grow at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Nash spends her time and money making sure the shrub is well-tended, but she's got a difficult task. That's because the species deos not reproduce easily.

To further complicate matters, only the females of the species are located in Newton.

That means the shrub isn't being pollinated at all right now.

Not that Nash hasn't tried.

She attempted to help things along by performing a sort of artificial insemination with frozen pollen taken from the male plants at the Botanical Garden.

First, she tried to dab the pollen on the sumac using a small paintbrush, but that didn't work well.

"I was like a big clumsy giant trying to do something that flies do better ... The flower is probably maybe 1/8 of an inch to 1/4 of an inch across, and it's hard to even see without a magnifying glass. I was having to do it hit or miss like that," Nash said.

So instead she dabbed the pollen on insects so they could do the work, but that also failed.

Transplanting the males could be a problem at this point, because it might disturb the shrubs' germ plasm, or DNA, Nash said. The plants need to be propagated until the population can withstand the removal of a few males, she said.

"We hope to get seeds to make sure we get what genetic diversity is there and keep it viable," she said.

Once the males and females are commingled, there will still be a serious problem: The males tend to bloom earlier than females, making it more difficult for reproduction to occur. So why is this shrub so much trouble to keep alive?

"Rare plants are rare because they've got strange habits," Nash said.