Hello Panayoti, I apologize for using your blog for an unrelated communication, although it is about two plants that are rare in Colorado. Recently a friend of mine, Nancy Page Cooper, was on a plant hike that you led at Cherokee Ranch. She mentioned to you a plant that was considered extirpated in Colorado that had been found at Sandstone Ranch, Douglas County's newest open space. However, she could not remember the name, and she suggested that I contact you through your blog to tell you about it. The plant is Campanula aparinoides, the marsh bellflower, which both Weber's and Ackerfield's floras indicate has not been recorded in the state since the late 1800s and was assumed to be extirpated. Last August, while working on an ongoing plant survey at Sandstone Ranch with two other amateur plant enthusiasts (I'm a CoNPS member and Colorado NPM), I leaned over to look at a plant that was clinging to my pant leg. I had thought that it must be one of the four species of bedstraws that we've found on the property. However, it was a tiny, unfamiliar white bellflower. Barb Harbach and I keyed out the plant and were surprised to learn that it wasn't supposed to be in Colorado anymore. I contacted Loraine Yeatts and sent her some photos and pressed specimens and she came out and looked at the plants, as did some staff members from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. They all confirmed the identification, and one of the plant specimens that I sent to Loraine is now in the herbarium collection at DBG. Recently we've found another uncommon plant on the property, Viola selkirkii, Selkirk's violet, which the CNHP lists as S1, critically imperiled, in Colorado. DBG botanists currently working on a long term survey of plants at Sandstone Ranch have confirmed the identification that we amateurs made. They also have photographs and a pressed specimen of the plant that I gave to them, the latter of which will hopefully make its way into the herbarium at DBG too. Since Sandstone Ranch has been a private property for a number of generations and has not had previous botanical studies, we think it is a very special place. Evidently DBG must think so too, since they have just started a several month study of the plants on the property. If you have any questions or would like to correspond about these plants, please write to me at ectaylor@earthlink.net, since I don't often check the mailbox associated with the etincolorado@gmail.com address. Sincerely, Elizabeth C. Taylor
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Hello Panayoti,
ReplyDeleteI apologize for using your blog for an unrelated communication, although it is about two plants that are rare in Colorado. Recently a friend of mine, Nancy Page Cooper, was on a plant hike that you led at Cherokee Ranch. She mentioned to you a plant that was considered extirpated in Colorado that had been found at Sandstone Ranch, Douglas County's newest open space. However, she could not remember the name, and she suggested that I contact you through your blog to tell you about it. The plant is Campanula aparinoides, the marsh bellflower, which both Weber's and Ackerfield's floras indicate has not been recorded in the state since the late 1800s and was assumed to be extirpated. Last August, while working on an ongoing plant survey at Sandstone Ranch with two other amateur plant enthusiasts (I'm a CoNPS member and Colorado NPM), I leaned over to look at a plant that was clinging to my pant leg. I had thought that it must be one of the four species of bedstraws that we've found on the property. However, it was a tiny, unfamiliar white bellflower. Barb Harbach and I keyed out the plant and were surprised to learn that it wasn't supposed to be in Colorado anymore. I contacted Loraine Yeatts and sent her some photos and pressed specimens and she came out and looked at the plants, as did some staff members from the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. They all confirmed the identification, and one of the plant specimens that I sent to Loraine is now in the herbarium collection at DBG. Recently we've found another uncommon plant on the property, Viola selkirkii, Selkirk's violet, which the CNHP lists as S1, critically imperiled, in Colorado. DBG botanists currently working on a long term survey of plants at Sandstone Ranch have confirmed the identification that we amateurs made. They also have photographs and a pressed specimen of the plant that I gave to them, the latter of which will hopefully make its way into the herbarium at DBG too. Since Sandstone Ranch has been a private property for a number of generations and has not had previous botanical studies, we think it is a very special place. Evidently DBG must think so too, since they have just started a several month study of the plants on the property. If you have any questions or would like to correspond about these plants, please write to me at ectaylor@earthlink.net, since I don't often check the mailbox associated with the etincolorado@gmail.com address.
Sincerely, Elizabeth C. Taylor