Piperia yadonii
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Yadon's Piperia
Piperia yadonii
Description
Yadon's piperia, Piperia yadonii, is a slender perennial herb in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). Mature plants typically have two or three lanceo-late to oblanceolate basal leaves 4-6 in (10-15 cm) long and 0.8-1.2 in (2-3 cm) wide. The single flowering stems are up to 20 in (50 cm) tall with flowers arranged in a dense narrow-cylindrical raceme. The flowers consist of three petal-like sepals and three petals (together referred to as tepals). The upper three tepals are green and white and the lower three white. The lowermost tepal is specialized into a lip that is narrowly triangular and is strongly de-curved such that the tip nearly touches the spur of the flower. Piperia yadonii may occur with P. elegans,P. elongata, P. michaelii, and P. transversa, but it is distinguished from them in flower by its shorter spur length, particular pattern of green and white floral markings, and its earlier flowering time.
Yadon's piperia has light-weight seeds capable of long-distance dispersal through wind scattering; therefore, houses and other physical obstructions may affect seed dispersal. As in other orchids, germination of Yadon's piperia seeds probably involves a symbiotic relationship with a fungus. Following germination, orchid seedlings typically grow below ground for one to several years before producing their first basal leaves. Plants may produce only vegetative growth for several years, before first producing flowers.
The basal leaves in mature Yadon's piperia plants typically emerge sometime after fall or winter rains and wither by May or June, when the plant produces a single flowering stem. Only a small percentage of the Yadon's piperia plants in a population may flower in any year. This is consistent with what is known of other orchid species. As in some other plant taxa, individual orchids that flower in one year may not have the necessary energy reserves to flower in the following year, so size and flowering are not necessarily age-dependent.
Piperia yadonii was first collected by Leroy Abrams in 1925, in open pine forest near Pacific Grove. It was identified at that time as Piperia unalascensis, a polymorphic and wide-ranging species in the western United States. In a 1977 treatment of the genus Piperia, Ackerman segregated out several long-spurred taxa from the P. unalascensis complex, but attempted no analysis of the short-spurred forms. Morgan and Ackerman then segregated out two new taxa from the P. unalascensis complex in 1990, one of which was named Yadon's piperia after Vernal Yadon, former Director of the Museum of Natural History in Pacific Grove, Monterey County.
Habitat
Yadon's piperia has been found in Monterey pine forest with a herbaceous, sparse understory and in maritime chaparral along ridges where the shrubs, most often Arctostaphylos hookeri (Hooker's manzanita), are dwarfed and the soils shallow. Yadon's piperia, like other orchids, does not appear to be an early successional species but is able to colonize trails and roadbanks within the dwarf maritime chaparral or Monterey pine forest once a decade or more has passed, if light and moisture regimes are favorable.
Distribution
Yadon's piperia is found within Monterey pine forest and maritime chaparral communities in northern coastal Monterey County. Its center of distribution is the Monterey Peninsula where plants are found throughout the larger undeveloped tracts of Monterey pine forest. The range of Yadon's piperia extends north to the Los Lomas area, near the border of Santa Cruz County. Searches north into Santa Cruz County have uncovered little suitable habitat and no Yadon's piperia; nor do regional herbaria contain collections from Santa Cruz County. Since preparation of the proposed rule, Yadon's piperia has been found at one location about 15 mi (24 km) south of the Monterey Peninsula near Palo Colorado Canyon in maritime chap-arral. Maritime chaparral is uncommon along this region of the Big Sur coastline, but a few scattered patches do occur south to Pfieffer Point, located about 25 mi (40 km) from the Peninsula. This plant has been found only 4-6 mi (6.4-9.6 km) inland, despite searches of lands farther east. Toro Regional Park, 10-15 mi (16-24 km) inland, was searched and four unidentified Piperia were found, but the habitat was reported to be dissimilar to that favored by Yadon's piperia.
The Pebble Beach Company funded intensive surveys for Yadon's piperia, focusing first on the Monterey Peninsula in 1995 and then beyond the Peninsula to western Monterey County in 1996. Approximately 84,000 Yadon's piperia plants on about 350 acres were counted at all known sites throughout the range of this species since 1990. Plants are often densely clustered and may reach densities of 100-200 plants in a few square meters (10-20 plants in a few square feet). the age structure of these populations is not known because size and flowering are not always age-dependent.
During these surveys, the greatest concentrations of Yadon's piperia, approximately 57,000 plants or 67% of the known total, were found scattered throughout much of the remaining Monterey pine forest owned by the Pebble Beach Company and the Del Monte Forest Foundation on the Monterey Peninsula. About 8,500 of these plants are in open space areas there. Another 2,000 plants, 2% of all known, occur on remnant patches of Monterey pine forest in parks and open space areas of Pacific Grove and Monterey. Inland to the north, about 18,000 Yadon's piperia plants or 21% of all known plants, have been found on the chaparral covered ridges north of Prunedale. About 8,000 of these are on lands that receive some protection at Manzanita County Park and The Nature Conservancy's Blohm Ranch; the remainder are on private lands that are not protected. South of the Peninsula about 7,500 plants have been found on CDPR properties at Pt. Lobos Ranch, on surrounding lands that are to be turned over to CDPR in the future, and in a smaller parcel that is in private ownership.
Considering the current abundance of Yadon's piperia in the remaining large tracts of Monterey Forest, this species probably occurred throughout the Peninsula when Monterey pine forests were much more extensive.
Threats
Continued fragmentation and destruction of habitat due to urban and golf course development are currently the greatest threats to Yadon's piperia. Other threats include exclusion by alien species, roadside mowing, and potentially an increase in deer grazing of flowering stems.
The Monterey Peninsula provides the greatest amount of remaining contiguous habitat and supports about 70% of known individuals of this taxon. The Del Monte Forest has 184 acres (73.6 hectares) of Yadon's piperia, over half of the remaining area for this species. Based on the distribution of plants found in remaining Monterey pine forest, historical collections from the now-urbanized Pacific Grove area, and the amount of Monterey Pine forest which the Peninsula historically supported, the distribution of Yadon's piperia today is likely only a fraction of the historical extent of this species on the Peninsula. In the habitat that remains, this taxa occurs in 13 of the proposed subdivisions to be developed. The 245-acre (98-hectare) site of the proposed golf course supports about 16,000 individuals of this species and is the second largest contiguous stand of Monterey pine forest left on the Peninsula. The development currently proposed by the Pebble Beach Company would result in the loss or alteration of habitat supporting about 46,000 plants of Yadon's piperia on about 149 acres (60 hectares). This would represent about 80% of known plants on the Peninsula.
Including the 7,500 plants in the Huckleberry Hill Reserve, about 10,800 plants of Yadon's piperia would fall within proposed forested open space. Other open space areas are located at the ends or borders of the proposed subdivisions or in some cases are encircled by the proposed lots. The effects of habitat fragmentation are likely to result in the eventual extirpation of colonies in these areas. The alien shrub Genista monspessulana has invaded the nearby La Mesa housing development and is expected to engulf remnant habitats that support Yadon's piperia. Trampling by recreationists is a noted problem in remnant habitats that support Yadon's piperia at two city parks. Mowing for roadside fire control, which shears off the flowering stalks of this plant, thereby preventing reproduction, also occurs in remnant open space habitats on the Peninsula.
Beyond the Monterey Peninsula, over 60% of the known Yadon's piperia plants are on privately owned lands without protection, most of these in the Prunedale area. Two residential developments of over 40 acres (16 hectares), each of which support potential maritime chaparral habitat, have been approved. A third property, known to support several thousand Yadon's piperia, has been subdivided, although construction has not yet begun.
Increased predation (herbivory) by deer due to an elevated deer population on the Peninsula is a potential threat to Yadon's piperia. During surveys in 1995 and 1996 a sample of plants both on and off of the Peninsula were placed under cages to protect them from large herbivores. About 13% of the caged plants flowered, while in unprotected plants only about 2% could be found with flowering stems, a reduction of 85%. Severe herbivory of leaves, also likely from deer, has been noted as well Although the Service is not aware of any quantitative data on deer populations on the Peninsula, anecdotal evidence, such as sightings and reports of health, suggest that the number of deer on the Peninsula is high. If the loss of 85% of flowering stems calculated by Allen in 1996 is close to actual herbivory rates on the Peninsula, predation could have a substantial effect on the reproductive success of the species, particularly as populations are reduced by large scale habitat loss and fragmentation due to development.
The inadequacy of existing regulations is also a contributing factor in the status of this species. The biological surveys that are required under CEQA are are not always adequate to identify sensitive species. In the northern portion of the range of Yadon's piperia, for example, a 40-acre (16-hectares) residential development was approved in an area that contains maritime chaparral habitat and is located within 5 mi (8 km) of a known site of Yadon's piperia. The biological survey was conducted in September 1995, a seasonal time when no aboveground parts of Yadon's piperia are present.
Yadon's piperia, like many other orchids and showy-flowered monocots, may be particularly vulnerable to collecting by amateur and professional horticulturalists due to the plant's unusual flower and its tuberous growth habitat which increases the ease with which it can be moved.
Conservations And Recovery
The Yadon's piperia survives on about 350 acres (140 hectares) of scattered critical habitat, most of which is privately owned by the Pebble Beach Company and the Del Monte Forest Foundation on the Monterey Peninsula. Some habitats are protected in areas managed by these private owners as open space or parks, and others are conserved in Manzanita County Park, the Blohm Ranch of the Nature Conservancy, and land owned at Pt. Lobos Ranch by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. More of the privately owned critical habitat of the Yadon's piperia should be more strictly protected than is presently the case. This could be done by acquiring private habitat and establishing ecological reserves, or by negotiating conservation easements with the landowners. The populations of the Yadon's piperia should be monitored, and research undertaken into its ecological needs.
Contacts
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office
2493 Portola Road, Suite B
Ventura, California 93003-7726
Telephone: (805) 644-1766
References
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 12 August 1998. "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Rule Listing Five Plants From Monterey County, California, as Endangered or Threatened." Federal Register 63 (155): 43100-43116.
| Status | |
| Listed | |
| Family | |
| Description | |
| Habitat | |
| Threats | |
| Range |
Yadon's piperia, Piperia yadonii, is a slender perennial herb in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). Mature plants typically have two or three lanceo-late to oblanceolate basal leaves 4-6 in (10-15 cm) long and 0.8-1.2 in (2-3 cm) wide. The single flowering stems are up to 20 in (50 cm) tall with flowers arranged in a dense narrow-cylindrical raceme. The flowers consist of three petal-like sepals and three petals (together referred to as tepals). The upper three tepals are green and white and the lower three white. The lowermost tepal is specialized into a lip that is narrowly triangular and is strongly de-curved such that the tip nearly touches the spur of the flower. Piperia yadonii may occur with P. elegans,P. elongata, P. michaelii, and P. transversa, but it is distinguished from them in flower by its shorter spur length, particular pattern of green and white floral markings, and its earlier flowering time.
Yadon's piperia has light-weight seeds capable of long-distance dispersal through wind scattering; therefore, houses and other physical obstructions may affect seed dispersal. As in other orchids, germination of Yadon's piperia seeds probably involves a symbiotic relationship with a fungus. Following germination, orchid seedlings typically grow below ground for one to several years before producing their first basal leaves. Plants may produce only vegetative growth for several years, before first producing flowers.
The basal leaves in mature Yadon's piperia plants typically emerge sometime after fall or winter rains and wither by May or June, when the plant produces a single flowering stem. Only a small percentage of the Yadon's piperia plants in a population may flower in any year. This is consistent with what is known of other orchid species. As in some other plant taxa, individual orchids that flower in one year may not have the necessary energy reserves to flower in the following year, so size and flowering are not necessarily age-dependent.
Piperia yadonii was first collected by Leroy Abrams in 1925, in open pine forest near Pacific Grove. It was identified at that time as Piperia unalascensis, a polymorphic and wide-ranging species in the western United States. In a 1977 treatment of the genus Piperia, Ackerman segregated out several long-spurred taxa from the P. unalascensis complex, but attempted no analysis of the short-spurred forms. Morgan and Ackerman then segregated out two new taxa from the P. unalascensis complex in 1990, one of which was named Yadon's piperia after Vernal Yadon, former Director of the Museum of Natural History in Pacific Grove, Monterey County.
Habitat
Yadon's piperia has been found in Monterey pine forest with a herbaceous, sparse understory and in maritime chaparral along ridges where the shrubs, most often Arctostaphylos hookeri (Hooker's manzanita), are dwarfed and the soils shallow. Yadon's piperia, like other orchids, does not appear to be an early successional species but is able to colonize trails and roadbanks within the dwarf maritime chaparral or Monterey pine forest once a decade or more has passed, if light and moisture regimes are favorable.
Distribution
Yadon's piperia is found within Monterey pine forest and maritime chaparral communities in northern coastal Monterey County. Its center of distribution is the Monterey Peninsula where plants are found throughout the larger undeveloped tracts of Monterey pine forest. The range of Yadon's piperia extends north to the Los Lomas area, near the border of Santa Cruz County. Searches north into Santa Cruz County have uncovered little suitable habitat and no Yadon's piperia; nor do regional herbaria contain collections from Santa Cruz County. Since preparation of the proposed rule, Yadon's piperia has been found at one location about 15 mi (24 km) south of the Monterey Peninsula near Palo Colorado Canyon in maritime chap-arral. Maritime chaparral is uncommon along this region of the Big Sur coastline, but a few scattered patches do occur south to Pfieffer Point, located about 25 mi (40 km) from the Peninsula. This plant has been found only 4-6 mi (6.4-9.6 km) inland, despite searches of lands farther east. Toro Regional Park, 10-15 mi (16-24 km) inland, was searched and four unidentified Piperia were found, but the habitat was reported to be dissimilar to that favored by Yadon's piperia.
The Pebble Beach Company funded intensive surveys for Yadon's piperia, focusing first on the Monterey Peninsula in 1995 and then beyond the Peninsula to western Monterey County in 1996. Approximately 84,000 Yadon's piperia plants on about 350 acres were counted at all known sites throughout the range of this species since 1990. Plants are often densely clustered and may reach densities of 100-200 plants in a few square meters (10-20 plants in a few square feet). the age structure of these populations is not known because size and flowering are not always age-dependent.
During these surveys, the greatest concentrations of Yadon's piperia, approximately 57,000 plants or 67% of the known total, were found scattered throughout much of the remaining Monterey pine forest owned by the Pebble Beach Company and the Del Monte Forest Foundation on the Monterey Peninsula. About 8,500 of these plants are in open space areas there. Another 2,000 plants, 2% of all known, occur on remnant patches of Monterey pine forest in parks and open space areas of Pacific Grove and Monterey. Inland to the north, about 18,000 Yadon's piperia plants or 21% of all known plants, have been found on the chaparral covered ridges north of Prunedale. About 8,000 of these are on lands that receive some protection at Manzanita County Park and The Nature Conservancy's Blohm Ranch; the remainder are on private lands that are not protected. South of the Peninsula about 7,500 plants have been found on CDPR properties at Pt. Lobos Ranch, on surrounding lands that are to be turned over to CDPR in the future, and in a smaller parcel that is in private ownership.
Considering the current abundance of Yadon's piperia in the remaining large tracts of Monterey Forest, this species probably occurred throughout the Peninsula when Monterey pine forests were much more extensive.
Threats
Continued fragmentation and destruction of habitat due to urban and golf course development are currently the greatest threats to Yadon's piperia. Other threats include exclusion by alien species, roadside mowing, and potentially an increase in deer grazing of flowering stems.
The Monterey Peninsula provides the greatest amount of remaining contiguous habitat and supports about 70% of known individuals of this taxon. The Del Monte Forest has 184 acres (73.6 hectares) of Yadon's piperia, over half of the remaining area for this species. Based on the distribution of plants found in remaining Monterey pine forest, historical collections from the now-urbanized Pacific Grove area, and the amount of Monterey Pine forest which the Peninsula historically supported, the distribution of Yadon's piperia today is likely only a fraction of the historical extent of this species on the Peninsula. In the habitat that remains, this taxa occurs in 13 of the proposed subdivisions to be developed. The 245-acre (98-hectare) site of the proposed golf course supports about 16,000 individuals of this species and is the second largest contiguous stand of Monterey pine forest left on the Peninsula. The development currently proposed by the Pebble Beach Company would result in the loss or alteration of habitat supporting about 46,000 plants of Yadon's piperia on about 149 acres (60 hectares). This would represent about 80% of known plants on the Peninsula.
Including the 7,500 plants in the Huckleberry Hill Reserve, about 10,800 plants of Yadon's piperia would fall within proposed forested open space. Other open space areas are located at the ends or borders of the proposed subdivisions or in some cases are encircled by the proposed lots. The effects of habitat fragmentation are likely to result in the eventual extirpation of colonies in these areas. The alien shrub Genista monspessulana has invaded the nearby La Mesa housing development and is expected to engulf remnant habitats that support Yadon's piperia. Trampling by recreationists is a noted problem in remnant habitats that support Yadon's piperia at two city parks. Mowing for roadside fire control, which shears off the flowering stalks of this plant, thereby preventing reproduction, also occurs in remnant open space habitats on the Peninsula.
Beyond the Monterey Peninsula, over 60% of the known Yadon's piperia plants are on privately owned lands without protection, most of these in the Prunedale area. Two residential developments of over 40 acres (16 hectares), each of which support potential maritime chaparral habitat, have been approved. A third property, known to support several thousand Yadon's piperia, has been subdivided, although construction has not yet begun.
Increased predation (herbivory) by deer due to an elevated deer population on the Peninsula is a potential threat to Yadon's piperia. During surveys in 1995 and 1996 a sample of plants both on and off of the Peninsula were placed under cages to protect them from large herbivores. About 13% of the caged plants flowered, while in unprotected plants only about 2% could be found with flowering stems, a reduction of 85%. Severe herbivory of leaves, also likely from deer, has been noted as well Although the Service is not aware of any quantitative data on deer populations on the Peninsula, anecdotal evidence, such as sightings and reports of health, suggest that the number of deer on the Peninsula is high. If the loss of 85% of flowering stems calculated by Allen in 1996 is close to actual herbivory rates on the Peninsula, predation could have a substantial effect on the reproductive success of the species, particularly as populations are reduced by large scale habitat loss and fragmentation due to development.
The inadequacy of existing regulations is also a contributing factor in the status of this species. The biological surveys that are required under CEQA are are not always adequate to identify sensitive species. In the northern portion of the range of Yadon's piperia, for example, a 40-acre (16-hectares) residential development was approved in an area that contains maritime chaparral habitat and is located within 5 mi (8 km) of a known site of Yadon's piperia. The biological survey was conducted in September 1995, a seasonal time when no aboveground parts of Yadon's piperia are present.
Yadon's piperia, like many other orchids and showy-flowered monocots, may be particularly vulnerable to collecting by amateur and professional horticulturalists due to the plant's unusual flower and its tuberous growth habitat which increases the ease with which it can be moved.
Conservations And Recovery
The Yadon's piperia survives on about 350 acres (140 hectares) of scattered critical habitat, most of which is privately owned by the Pebble Beach Company and the Del Monte Forest Foundation on the Monterey Peninsula. Some habitats are protected in areas managed by these private owners as open space or parks, and others are conserved in Manzanita County Park, the Blohm Ranch of the Nature Conservancy, and land owned at Pt. Lobos Ranch by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. More of the privately owned critical habitat of the Yadon's piperia should be more strictly protected than is presently the case. This could be done by acquiring private habitat and establishing ecological reserves, or by negotiating conservation easements with the landowners. The populations of the Yadon's piperia should be monitored, and research undertaken into its ecological needs.
Contacts
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office
2493 Portola Road, Suite B
Ventura, California 93003-7726
Telephone: (805) 644-1766
References
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 12 August 1998. "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Final Rule Listing Five Plants From Monterey County, California, as Endangered or Threatened." Federal Register 63 (155): 43100-43116.
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Piperia yadonii
| Piperia yadonii | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Orchidaceae |
| Subfamily: | Orchidoideae |
| Genus: | Piperia |
| Species: | P. yadonii |
| Binomial name | |
| Piperia yadonii R. Morgan & Ackerman |
|
Piperia yadonii, also known as Yadon's Piperia or Yadon's rein orchid, is an endangered orchid endemic to a narrow range of coastal habitat in northern Monterey County, California. In 1998 this plant was designated as an endangered species by the United States government, the major threat to its survival being continuing land development from an expanding human population and associated habitat loss.[1] One of the habitats of Yadon’s Piperia, the Del Monte Forest near Monterey, California, is the subject of a federal lawsuit, based upon endangerment of this organism along with several other endangered species.
This wildflower may lie dormant in a given year and not emerge above the soil surface from its tuberous substructure. After leafing out in the spring, it will produce flowers on erect spikes, each flower possessing both green and white petals. It prefers sandy soils, and subsists on nutrient extraction from intermediate fungal organisms.
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Contents
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Description
Along with most other orchids P. yadonii: (a) is a bisexual perennial nongreen plant that grows from buried tubers; manifests a fruit capsule bearing numerous minute seeds; (b) exhibits pollen that is sticky, and which is removed as sessile anther sacs; and (c) has a stigma fused with its style into a column.
There are a total of eight species in the genus Piperia, which is named for American botanist Charles V. Piper. The genus members manifest generally cylindrical spikes or racemes. As with other Piperia, Yadon's Piperia exhibits a single veined flower one to two millimeters in width and a basal rosette leaf formation.
The subsurface architecture of this terrestrial wild orchid consists of a rhizome structure, from which emanate tubers. The rhizome extracts nutrients from fungal intermediates and may also store some of these nutrients. A basal rosette of leaves develops from the tuber at the surface of the soil, each of the two or three leaves being lanceolate in shape.[2] Each leaf ranges from 10 to 15 centimeters in length and 20 to35 millimeters in width. Leaves of younger plants are often more diminutive in size.
The dense inflorescence is borne on a single erect vertical spike varying from 12 to 55 centimeters in height.[3] Each flower has a spur of length 1.5 to 5 millimeters, short compared to other members of the genus. Yadon’s Piperia typically presents three upper tepals, each of which contains both green and white pigmentation; moreover, there are three lower tepals that are white only. The earliest blooming time is June. When P. yadonii blooms, as late as August, all of its sepals and petals may be purely white.
Another key identification feature is the characteristically abbreviated spur, which typically measures 1.5 to 6.0 millimeters in length. P. yadonii's leaves usually wither by blooming time, except for a small percentage of very large individuals. The geographic range of P. yadonii overlaps that of P. elegans, P. elongata, P. michaelii, and P. transversa; consequently, P. yadonii is clearly distinguished from them only in the flowering stage. Sympatric occurrences in mixed populations with P. elongata and P. elegans are noted in the literature.
Reproduction and symbiosis
Seeds of this species, like other orchids, lack an endosperm.[4] The extremely small seeds must come in contact with appropriate soil fungi in order to germinate. The resulting seedlings obtain fixed carbon from the fungus until they produce their first leaves and begin to photosynthesize. This strategy is known as myco-heterotrophy. Vegetative reproduction may also occur.
Distribution and habitat
Yadon’s piperia is confined to a handful of locations in the coastal area of north Monterey County primarily the Del Monte Forest on the Monterey Peninsula. Tiny populations have been found in the Prunedale Hills; and an isolated southernmost population on Rocky Creek Ridge (Cushing Mountain) at Big Sur. Specific places of occurrence within those areas are the S.F.B. Morse Botanical Reserve; Manzanita County Park; and the Nature Conservancy’s Blohm Ranch Nature Preserve. Each colony is rather small in patch size, measured on the order of twenty acres or less. All of the occurrences are below about 250 meters above mean sea level and all are within six miles of the Pacific Ocean.
Yadon’s Piperia is generally restricted to three habitats: (a) Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) forest, sometimes with Gowen’s cypress (Cupressus goveniana ssp. goveniana) which includes more than 80 percent of the known populations; (b) California Northern coastal scrub, with dwarfed Hooker’s manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp. hookeri) or Eastwood’s manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa); and (c) Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) forest. The colonies in woodland settings are found under partial canopy in an open, primarily herbaceous understory shape.
The Monterey Peninsula and northern Big Sur areas are influenced by a marine climate that is pronounced due to the upwelling of cool water from the Monterey submarine canyon. Rainfall is 40 to 50 centimeters per year, but summer fog drip is a primary source of moisture for Yadon’s Piperia and other plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low precipitation.
History and conservation
Piperia yadonii was named for Vern Yadon, former longtime director of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. The Monterey Peninsula, where all colonies of Yadon’s Piperia occur, is recognized to have a high degree of species endemicism. Species with more northern ranges often reach their southern limits on the Peninsula; species with more southern affinities reach their northern limits there as well. On the Monterey Peninsula some taxa comprising habitat for P. yadonii, such as the coastal closed-cone pines and cypresses are relict stands, e.g. species that once extended more widely in the mesic climate of the late Pleistocene period, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early Holocene period between 6000 and 2000 BC.[5]
Yadon’s Piperia, along with certain other threatened species in the northern California Floristic Province, has been designated as a species meriting protection by the U.S. Government, State of California, local governments and private conservation groups. These designations have led to blueprints for protection of Yadon's piperia in the form of official endangerment classifications and a species Recovery Plan,[6] the latter promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Even with all these efforts, the total current population is not necessarily above the minimum viable population without further elements of protection.
The listing as a federally endangered species occurred in 1998, prompted[7] by a study conducted by Earth Metrics for the city of Monterey, which found the colony in the Del Monte forest to be threatened by proposed land development.[8] Subsequently in 1995 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acted on this new information regarding Yadon’s piperia, and promulgated a notice of intent to classify the species as endangered.
Monitoring populations of Yadon's Piperia is challenging since each tuber does not produce emergent leaves or flowers in a given year. To complicate matters further, the plant can only be identified conclusively in its flowering stage, and yet, even when the plant leafs out, it may not necessarily produce a flower in a given year. Furthermore, by the time a flower is produced, the leaves have typically senesced; thus, a survey conducted during the flowering season will miss plants that have leafed out but not flowered.
References
- ^ United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants: Final rule listing five plants from Monterey County, California as endangered or threatened. Federal Register 63: 43100–43116 (1998)
- ^ Morgan & Ackerman, Lindleyana 5:205–211 (1990)
- ^ The Jepson manual: higher plants of California, Hickman, JC, ed., University of California Press, Berkeley, Ca. (1993)
- ^ T.C. Wells, Population ecology of terrestrial orchids: The biological aspects of rare plant conservation, H. Synge, John Wiley & Sons. Ltd: 281–295 (1981)
- ^ C.I. Millar, Reconsidering the Conservation of Monterey Pine. Fremontia 26(3):12–16 (1998)
- ^ Notice of Availability of a Draft Recovery Plan for Five Plants From Monterey County, CA, Federal Register: May 13, 2002, Volume 67, Number 92, Pages 32003–32004
- ^ U.S. Federal Register: August 2, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 148, Pages 39326–39337)
- ^ C.M. Hogan, G. Deghi, M. Papineau et al., Environmental Impact Report for the Pebble Beach Properties project by Del Monte Forest, Earth Metrics Inc. Prepared for the city of Monterey and State of California Clearinghouse (1992)
See also
External links
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