Protecting a Washington Rarity, the Endangered Desert Buckwheat
“I call it Grandpa,” says Maya Kahn-Abrams, a first year master’s student at the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS).
Kahn-Abrams is talking about Umtanum desert buckwheat (Eriogonum codium), an endangered endemic which is the subject of her master’s thesis. “There’s something so magical about this plant–it’s very slow-growing and there’s one population in the whole world,” she explains. “I’ve fallen very much in love with it because it has a very wise, old, grandpa energy.”
This excruciatingly rare plant has been documented in only one place: along a basalt ridgetop at the Hanford Reach National Monument in Benton County, WA. As of 2019, there were approximately 3000 individual plants, some of which are thought to have persisted for a century. From May to August, their lemon-yellow flowers blaze above the Columbia River, providing nectar to pollinators.
Past threats to E. codium included livestock grazing and activity at the Hanford Site (U.S. Department of Energy). Today, threats are invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), increasing temperatures, and fire. The plant’s extremely low germination rate is also a factor of great concern for its projected population numbers.
A multipronged strategy to protect E. codium is underway, thanks to coordinated efforts between the University of Washington Botanic Gardens’ Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care), Dr. Jon Bakker and Dr. Brittany Johson labs at SEFS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Washington National Heritage Program, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The strategy includes research into seedling survival, outplanting techniques, trialing the effects of herbicides on the plant, and determining its soil and moisture requirements.
“My graduate thesis is focused on trying to look at the relationship between the soils the Eriogonum is growing in, the soils where it has been outplanted, and the potential relationships between these soil characteristics and the species’s current range and outplanting success,” Kahn-Abrams explains.
Cheatgrass is an extremely pernicious and tenacious foe, so it’s paramount to figure out how to decrease it without harming E. codium in the process. Research is being done to identify an herbicide that will control it without negatively impacting the Eriogonum population. “I’m running the greenhouse experiment which is looking at the effects of certain herbicides on the seedlings,” says Kahn-Abrams. “It’s not technically part of my thesis but it’s work that’s got to be done.”
A Shrub-Steppe Lover
Kahn-Abrams is intimately familiar with–and protective of–the endemic plants of Washington’s shrub-steppe, a passion which was ignited by fieldwork she did in Umtanum Creek Canyon (“my favorite place on earth”) while an undergraduate at Evergreen State College. Post-graduation, an internship with Rare Care further solidified her zeal for Washington’s rare plants. And of course, she gained core skills along the way–plant-monitoring techniques, mapping, interpreting data. She continued to work off and on as an employee and volunteer for Rare Care over the next two years. These experiences were transformational and gave her a “profound sense of purpose.” Her goal: to become a professional restoration ecologist working to conserve Washignton’s floral diversity. Of course, entering graduate school at UW was the next step.
“I’m so excited to be working with Maya on this project,” remarks Wendy Gibble, Associate Director of UWBG and Manager of Conservation and Education, Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation. “She brings a passion for native plants and curiosity about the natural world that is critical to teasing apart the research questions we are investigating on this plant. Providing opportunities to students and early career professionals is a critical part of our mission because we need to develop the next generation of botanists to carry plant conservation forward in the coming decades.”
Spring Fieldwork Update
Twenty-five (self-sown) E. codium seedlings were found during an early March fieldwork visit to the Hanford site. During upcoming trips Kahn-Abrams and Rare Care staff will monitor their growth and recruitment–and hopefully that of additional seedlings which emerge later in the spring. To determine the plant’s precise growing requirements, data will also be collected to determine the site’s slope, aspect, concavity and soil texture.
Kahn-Abrams is currently awaiting permission from the Department of Energy, in consultation with the Yakama Nation, to conduct soil analysis at the population site. This will enable her to determine the soil’s parent material, pH level, infiltration rate, and other characteristics which will in turn help Rare Care make sound decisions about potential outplanting sites in coming years. Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park and the Saddle Mountains are among the sites currently under consideration for outplanting locations.
Kahn-Abrams’s work is helping drive Eriogonum codium research–and its future–forward. Stay tuned for updates about this precious shrub-steppe rarity.