Post by Melanie on Feb 7, 2008 1:24:09 GMT 1
Many fi rst-time visitors to the UNC Herbarium ask, “Do
you have any really rare plants?” My answer is, “Yes, hundreds!
This is the main repository for rare plants inventoried by
the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.”
If that fails to impress, I show them Accession #566869:
Psoralea stipulata—now categorized as Orbexilum stipulatum
(Torrey & Gray) Rydberg—collected by C. W. Short in 1842.
Orbexilum stipulatum, commonly called Falls-of-the-Ohio
Scurfpea, is an Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the plant world: it
was last seen in 1881 and is presumed extinct. Biologists cling
to the hope that it too will be
rediscovered.
All known specimens of
Orbexilum stipulatum were
collected between 1835 and
1881 from a single location:
Rock Island, Falls of the
Ohio. Though some herbarium
specimens claim this
location as Indiana or Ohio,
the river channel is within
the Commonwealth of Kentucky
(the Northwest Ordinance
of 1787 defi ned the
Indiana state line as the north
bank of the Ohio River1). The
Falls of the Ohio is a 26-foot
drop over a series of rapids and rock shelves in a 2-mile stretch
of the Ohio River. Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana,
grew up at this navigational barrier. Rock Island, one of the larger
islands in the cataract, “is (or was) a small Devonian limestone
island of the Falls of the Ohio River and within the Louisville,
Jefferson County, Kentucky corporate limits. Most of the island
was destroyed in the 1920s as a consequence of building U.S.
Dam No. 41 . . . and the Louisville Hydroelectric Plant.”2
Charles Wilkins Short, M.D. (1794–1863) made many collections
of Orbexilum stipulatum over a 20-year period, all from
Rock Island. The UNC Herbarium specimen, collected by Short
in 1842, is in perfect condition. Asa Gray (1810–1888) praised
Short as “the fi rst in this country to prepare on an ample scale
dried specimens of uniform and superlative excellence and beauty
. . . the vast improvement in the character of the dried specimens
now generally made by our botanists may be mainly traced to
the example and infl uence of Dr. Short.”3
Will Falls-of-the-Ohio Scurfpea be rediscovered in the wild?
Suitable habitats—fl ood-scoured riverbank bedrock, gravel bars,
and limestone barrens and glades—exist nearby in Kentucky
and Indiana. Happily, another Rock Island refugee was recently
discovered in Indiana. Solidago shortii, named in honor of C. W.
Short by Asa Gray, had disappeared from Rock Island by the late
1860s. It was believed extinct until a population was discovered
in 1939 by Dr. E. Lucy Braun in Kentucky more than 160 km
east of Rock Island. In 2001, during a botanical inventory of
the Blue River in Indiana, researchers found a population of S.
shortii. This site is “perhaps Indiana’s largest and most diverse
example of the brush prairie gravel wash community. . . . situated
at the base of a south-facing slope bordering the Blue River . . .
18 km upriver from the Ohio
River.”4
Is Orbexilum stipulatum
alive and well, lurking
on some gravel island in
southern Indiana or northern
Kentucky, awaiting rediscovery
like Solidago shortii?
Perhaps, but optimism must
be tempered by the probably
lack of a seed source:
although he observed the
plant over a span of 20 years,
Short never saw it in fruit,
nor was he able to cultivate
it.5 For now, all we have are
herbarium specimens.
While the UNC Herbarium is proud to be the conservator
of such a rare specimen, we sincerely hope not to add many more
species to our “exist only as herbarium specimens” list. Our goal
is to preserve the fl ora of forests, streams, dunes, and islands so
we can enjoy them where they belong—in the wild.
References
1. NatureServe. 2007. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of
life [web application]. Version 6.2. NatureServe, Arlington, Va. Available
www.natureserve.org/explorer (accessed 24 July 2007).
2. Baskin, J.M., D. Isely, and C.C. Baskin. 1986. Geographical origin of the
specimens of Orbexilum stipulatum (T. & G.) Rydb. (Psoralea stipulata T.
& G.). Castanea 51(3): 207-210.
3. Gray, A. 1963. Dr. Charles Wilkins Short. Amer. J. Science 86: 130-39.
4. Homoya, M.A., and D. B. Abrell. 2005. A natural occurrence of the federally
endangered Short’s Goldenrod (Solidago shortii T. & G.) [ Asteraceae] in
Indiana: Its discovery, habitat, and associated fl ora. Castanea 70(4): 255-62.
5. Vail, A.M. 1894. A study of the genus Psoralea in America. Bull. Torrey
Bot. Club 21(3): 91–119.
6. home.insightbb.com/~sintax202/map10.html (accessed 24 July 2007).
7. home.insightbb.com/~sintax303/map44.html (accessed 24 July 2007).
The Heartbreak of Psoralea
By Carol Ann McCormick, Assistant Curator UNC Herbarium
Fall of the Ohio, map ca. 1812 by John Melish (1771–1822)6
you have any really rare plants?” My answer is, “Yes, hundreds!
This is the main repository for rare plants inventoried by
the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.”
If that fails to impress, I show them Accession #566869:
Psoralea stipulata—now categorized as Orbexilum stipulatum
(Torrey & Gray) Rydberg—collected by C. W. Short in 1842.
Orbexilum stipulatum, commonly called Falls-of-the-Ohio
Scurfpea, is an Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the plant world: it
was last seen in 1881 and is presumed extinct. Biologists cling
to the hope that it too will be
rediscovered.
All known specimens of
Orbexilum stipulatum were
collected between 1835 and
1881 from a single location:
Rock Island, Falls of the
Ohio. Though some herbarium
specimens claim this
location as Indiana or Ohio,
the river channel is within
the Commonwealth of Kentucky
(the Northwest Ordinance
of 1787 defi ned the
Indiana state line as the north
bank of the Ohio River1). The
Falls of the Ohio is a 26-foot
drop over a series of rapids and rock shelves in a 2-mile stretch
of the Ohio River. Louisville, Kentucky, and Clarksville, Indiana,
grew up at this navigational barrier. Rock Island, one of the larger
islands in the cataract, “is (or was) a small Devonian limestone
island of the Falls of the Ohio River and within the Louisville,
Jefferson County, Kentucky corporate limits. Most of the island
was destroyed in the 1920s as a consequence of building U.S.
Dam No. 41 . . . and the Louisville Hydroelectric Plant.”2
Charles Wilkins Short, M.D. (1794–1863) made many collections
of Orbexilum stipulatum over a 20-year period, all from
Rock Island. The UNC Herbarium specimen, collected by Short
in 1842, is in perfect condition. Asa Gray (1810–1888) praised
Short as “the fi rst in this country to prepare on an ample scale
dried specimens of uniform and superlative excellence and beauty
. . . the vast improvement in the character of the dried specimens
now generally made by our botanists may be mainly traced to
the example and infl uence of Dr. Short.”3
Will Falls-of-the-Ohio Scurfpea be rediscovered in the wild?
Suitable habitats—fl ood-scoured riverbank bedrock, gravel bars,
and limestone barrens and glades—exist nearby in Kentucky
and Indiana. Happily, another Rock Island refugee was recently
discovered in Indiana. Solidago shortii, named in honor of C. W.
Short by Asa Gray, had disappeared from Rock Island by the late
1860s. It was believed extinct until a population was discovered
in 1939 by Dr. E. Lucy Braun in Kentucky more than 160 km
east of Rock Island. In 2001, during a botanical inventory of
the Blue River in Indiana, researchers found a population of S.
shortii. This site is “perhaps Indiana’s largest and most diverse
example of the brush prairie gravel wash community. . . . situated
at the base of a south-facing slope bordering the Blue River . . .
18 km upriver from the Ohio
River.”4
Is Orbexilum stipulatum
alive and well, lurking
on some gravel island in
southern Indiana or northern
Kentucky, awaiting rediscovery
like Solidago shortii?
Perhaps, but optimism must
be tempered by the probably
lack of a seed source:
although he observed the
plant over a span of 20 years,
Short never saw it in fruit,
nor was he able to cultivate
it.5 For now, all we have are
herbarium specimens.
While the UNC Herbarium is proud to be the conservator
of such a rare specimen, we sincerely hope not to add many more
species to our “exist only as herbarium specimens” list. Our goal
is to preserve the fl ora of forests, streams, dunes, and islands so
we can enjoy them where they belong—in the wild.
References
1. NatureServe. 2007. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of
life [web application]. Version 6.2. NatureServe, Arlington, Va. Available
www.natureserve.org/explorer (accessed 24 July 2007).
2. Baskin, J.M., D. Isely, and C.C. Baskin. 1986. Geographical origin of the
specimens of Orbexilum stipulatum (T. & G.) Rydb. (Psoralea stipulata T.
& G.). Castanea 51(3): 207-210.
3. Gray, A. 1963. Dr. Charles Wilkins Short. Amer. J. Science 86: 130-39.
4. Homoya, M.A., and D. B. Abrell. 2005. A natural occurrence of the federally
endangered Short’s Goldenrod (Solidago shortii T. & G.) [ Asteraceae] in
Indiana: Its discovery, habitat, and associated fl ora. Castanea 70(4): 255-62.
5. Vail, A.M. 1894. A study of the genus Psoralea in America. Bull. Torrey
Bot. Club 21(3): 91–119.
6. home.insightbb.com/~sintax202/map10.html (accessed 24 July 2007).
7. home.insightbb.com/~sintax303/map44.html (accessed 24 July 2007).
The Heartbreak of Psoralea
By Carol Ann McCormick, Assistant Curator UNC Herbarium
Fall of the Ohio, map ca. 1812 by John Melish (1771–1822)6
