Rare plant may be added to endangered species list

A rare central Texas plant, known to exist in only seven locations, may soon become protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is proposing to list the big red sage, a plant species endemic to the Edwards Plateau, as endangered. A 60-day public comment period on the proposed listing closes on March 24.

First described in the 1840s, big red sage was presumed extinct until it was rediscovered in 1980. Since then, the total population of the plant has declined from 14 reported populations to just seven confirmed locations. Though big red sage grows well in cultivated landscapes and is fairly common in the nursery trade, it is rarely spotted in the wild.

“It is currently on the verge of extinction, and our goal is for big red sage to remain a part of the living natural heritage of Texas and the nation,” said Amy Lueders, the USFWS Southwest Regional Director.

One of the groups working to preserve big red sage is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. According to Dr. Jonathan Flickinger, Conservation Collections Manager, one of the biggest threats to the plant is herbivory - whitetailed deer, in particular, are known to eat the plant.

People have also been a big threat. Because the plant is so rare in the wild, it has been a target for collectors. Then there are factors like development, climate change and increasing drought. Some populations have been affected by flooding.

“Historically it occurred in some other counties where we haven't found it again. It probably had a broader range,” Flickinger said. “In the wild, they're always in places where they're near a reliable source of water. So they're limited in that sense.”

Currently big red sage is only found in four counties: Kendall, Kerr, Bandera and Real. It usually grows on bluffs and banks along waterways. When flowering, it has five-foot-tall stalks covered with reddish-purple flowers. According to USFWS, it blooms opportunistically from May through November, if there is sufficient moisture seeping through the limestone.

“A lot of rare plants are not always the prettiest, but big red sage is a good example of one that's very charismatic,” Flickinger said.

The Wildflower Center’s current efforts to preserve big red sage are funded by Texas Parks and Wildlife with federal money provided to the states specifically for conservation projects.

One part of the effort involves searching for wild populations in suitable places and trying to access any place that it's historically been known to occur. Another part of the effort is collecting seeds at the known sites.

“We actually visited seven populations and got seed from all of them except one,” Flickinger said.

The third part of the Wildflower Center’s efforts is a little more experimental.

“Right now we're growing a portion of the seeds that we collected and what we hope to do is better understand its reproductive biology. Genetically, there's a concern that they have become inbred and are not being as productive as they could be.”

Nursery manager Lauren Gross helped to sow the seeds. At this stage, they have come up, but they are still little seedlings. The plants will serve two purposes.

“One, we're trying to increase the number of seeds that we can store. We're limited in the number of seeds that we can even harvest from the wild because there's so few plants in each location,” Flickinger said. “And next, by doing controlled crosses between plants from different populations, we can try to figure out if crossing them is good for the plants or potentially not good for the plants.”

While research shows that wild populations of big red sage have very low genetic diversity, they still have four times more unique genotypes than cultivated populations, which is one compelling reason for the Wildflower Center’s research. This genetic diversity gives the plant increased ability to adapt and respond to changing environments.

The Wildflower Center’s “seed banking” serves as an insurance policy, or backup, for big red sage, since the current wild populations are quite small. Only two populations out of the seven have more than 100 plants. Some have as few as five plants, and are at high risk of extirpation.

“Ultimately, you hope that you can restore those populations, and the seed bank can provide a source of material to do population augmentations or reintroductions, where you're putting plants back out in the wild,” Flickinger said. However, he said that can be a very difficult thing to do.

“It's been done successfully with different species, but it's hard. It’s not like in your garden where you can water them and check them every day,” Flickinger said. “You have to put a bunch out there and hope some take.”

In 2005, the Wildflower Center participated in one such effort in Kendall County. It provided big red sage seeds that it had collected from the wild to help reintroduce the species to a previous site. The attempt was partially successful. Plants that were protected by enclosures survived, though they declined in numbers over the years. Plants that were not protected did not survive.

Jessi White, Conservation Partnerships Coordinator at the Wildflower Center, works with several groups on big red sage efforts. She has collected seeds on four different occasions, and said one of her favorite things is just connecting with the people who are stewarding the plants.

“Most of the populations have people who either own or manage the land they are growing on,” White said. “They're all just so excited that we're working on the plant and that we are excited about it.”

She said the first time she collected big red sage seeds, she was very nervous because of the rarity of the plant and the strict rules that have to be followed for collection. They had to walk for quite a while through a shaded ash juniper understory, and when they finally got there, it was just a straight drop down to the little outcrop where the plants were.

“Some of the plants were on the edge. It was terrifying to get there. I had like a billion envelopes everywhere and I was trying to crawl down the little bluff with all my stuff in my hands,” White said. “But everybody was just really hands on and involved.”

White said that inaccessibility is one of the reasons the plants may have survived in that location. In addition, the surrounding rock is karst, and is full of holes, which makes it very difficult for deer to navigate. The plants likely get water from runoff from the cliff, and the cliff may also provide protection from extreme weather conditions. But a lot of that is speculation.

“We need to do so much more studying of this species, because there's so little that we do actually know for sure,” White said.