- Hickman's potentilla
Taxobox
name = "Potentilla hickmanii"
status = EN
image_width = 130px
image_caption = Hickman's potentilla. Photo credit: Tony Morosco
regnum =Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis =Magnoliopsida
ordo =Rosales
familia =Rosaceae
subfamilia =Rosoideae
genus = "Potentilla "
species = "P. hickmanii"
binomial = "Potentilla hickmanii"
binomial_authority = Eastw., 1900Hickman's potentilla ("Potentilla hickmanii") is an endangered perennial
herb of the rose family. This rare plant species is found in a narrowly restricted range in coastal northernCalifornia , primarily along a confined location of northernMonterey County , secondarily in extremely small colonies inSan Mateo County andSonoma County . This small wildflower, endemic to western slopes of the outer coastal range along the Pacific Ocean coast, produces bright yellow blossoms throughout the spring. The species is also known by the common name Hickman's cinquefoil.This plant, along with many 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 Hickman's potentilla in the form of official endangerment classifications and a speciesRecovery Plan , the latter promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Even with all these efforts, the total current population is estimated to be fewer than 4500 organisms.Fact|date=May 2007Description
Hickman's potentilla is a rosetted non-
glandular flowering plant with a thicktaproot . [ "The Jepson manual: higher plants of California", Hickman, JC, ed.., University of California Press, Berkeley, Ca. (1993)] It has a stem that is prostrate todecumbent , of variable length five to forty five centimeters, which may occur in aglabrous manifestation. Blooming occurs between April and June; in winter, the plant dies back entirely, leaving only its woody stem intact. Thehypanthium is three to six millimeters wide, with yellow obchordatepetal s six to eleven millimeters in length. Up to teninflorescence s may present in a singleorganism . Filaments are typically 1.5 to 4.0 millimeters in length, whileanther s are only about one millimeter in size; moreover, thepistil s generally number about ten and the slender styles are about two to three millimeters long. [Philip A. Munz, "A California Flora",University of California Press, Berkeley, Ca. (1973)]The somewhat subglabrous leaves are
pinnate ly compound into generally six paired,palmate ly cleftleaflet s. These basal leaves range from six to twenty five millimeters in length with individual leaflets two to eight millimeters long and about two millimeters wide. There are four to seven leaflets per side, in a separated or overlapped configuration. The leaflets are wedge-shaped, typically having three to four teeth (lobes) and originate from about halfway along the leaf stem. The smoothfruit s are approximately two millimeters in diameter, and normally occur as tan in colour.Range and habitat
Hickman's potentilla is currently known to occur in three coastal locations. The Federal Register documents colonies on the
Monterey Peninsula and at one site in San Mateo County ["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] and it is also known to occur on one site in northernSonoma County . The Monterey population is within the municipal boundaries of the city of Monterey growing in fine sandy soils within an opening ofMonterey pine forest that supports wet conditions for a variety of native and nonnativegrassland species. The Monterey County population within theDel Monte Forest is the original discovery colony and numbers approximately 2000 plants.Fact|date=May 2007A second coastal colony was discovered in
Moss Beach, California in 1933 in awetland area at the mouth ofSan Vicente Creek ; this colony was presumed extirpated by at least the 1970s. Another population in San Mateo County was discovered in 1995 on the south slopes aboveMartini Creek (USGS quad reference Montara Mountain 3712254), on private land bybiologist s conducting surveys for theDevil's Slide highway project. ["Devil's Slide Improvement Project, Draft Second Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, Route 1 from Half Moon Bay Airport to Linda Mar Boulevard in Pacifica, San Mateo County, California", Caltrans District 4, San Francisco, Ca. (1987)] The Sonoma County population is situated in the Stemple Creek coastal watershed and is within USGS quad reference Two Rock 3812237. In all cases the populations are found between altitude 10 to 135 meters. The habitat for this species includes vernally wet meadows or open pine forests.History
The
Monterey Peninsula , discovery site of Hickman's potentilla, is recognized to have a high degree of species endemicism.Fact|date=May 2007 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. The Monterey Peninsula is influenced by a marine climate that is pronounced due to theupwelling of cool water from the Monterey submarinecanyon . Rainfall is 40 to 50 centimeters per year, but summer fog-drip is a primary source of moisture for plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low precipitation. Some taxa, such as the coastal closed-conepine s and cypresses arerelict stands, e.g. species that once extended more widely in themesic climate of the latePleistocene period, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier earlyHolocene period between 6000 and 2000 BC}. [C.I. Millar, "Reconsidering the Conservation of Monterey Pine". Fremontia 26(3):12–16 (1998)]The first recorded history of the discovery site was in 1602, by the Spanish
explorer Sebastian Viscaino , whose mission was mapping of thecoastline . Viscaino noted in his journal the presence of "pine covered headlands...great pine trees, smooth and straight".Alice Eastwood discovered "P. hickmansii" in the year 1900 on theMonterey Peninsula , a region then considered the fringe of civilization. TheBig Sur wilderness lay just beyond, unpenetrated by any roads at that time. Eastwood,Curator ofBotany at theCalifornia Academy of Sciences in San Francisco was a pioneerbiologist in exploring this remote area. On an expedition to amass specimens of rare plants from this southern reach of Monterey County, she retrieved a specimen of this previously unrecorded plant and named this species after J. B. Hickman, her guide on that collecting trip. Eastwood's commitment to her work was demonstrated in the aftermath of the1906 San Francisco earthquake . She rushed to the heavily damaged California Academy of Sciences building on Market Street, and climbed metal railings of collapsed staircases to reach theherbarium on the sixth floor, while the building was burning. She succeeded in saving nearly 1500specimen s, including the entire type specimen collection, before the remainder of the largest botanical collection in the western United States was consumed in the resulting fire. [Alice Eastwood, "The Coniferae of the Santa Lucia Mountains"] [Double Cone Quarterly, Fall Equinox, volume VII, Number 3 (2004)]Conservation status
In the year 1973 the state of
California recognized Hickman's potentilla as anendangered species . In the early to mid 1990s, a series of steps occurred that led to federal classification as an endangered species. Certain land development proposals came before the city of Monterey related to pine forest habitat area. In preparing anEnvironmental Impact Report , information on occurrences of Hickman's potentilla was published. [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)] [U.S.Federal Register : August 2, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 148, Pages 39326-39337] Subsequently in 1995 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) acted on this new information regarding a species that some thoughtextinct , and promulgated a notice of intent to classify the species as endangered.In 1998, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially classified Hickman's potentilla as endangered. After the FWS nomination process, further colonies in San Mateo and Sonoma Counties became defined. This chain of events illustrates the role of the
Environmental Impact Statement in elucidating scientific information germane to the understanding of an entire species, beyond the intended role of analyzing effects on the physical environment of a specific project."P. Hickmanii" continues to be pressured by urban development, especially on the
Monterey Peninsula with chief elements ofgolf course s and housing to support the expanding human population. These pressures are partially mitigated by species protection and recovery plans, the latter of which is recognized by the county, local cities, Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments and the State of California. The federal Recovery Plan (internationally calledBiodiversity Action Plan ) is general in nature, calling for morenatural history study, population surveys, generalized protection and a vague reference to new plantings. Ironically one of the best efforts to enhance the species may come from a program that is seemingly unaware of the species. TheFitzgerald Marine Reserve Master Plan calls for ["Fitzgerald Marine Reserve Master Plan", Brady Associates, County of San Mateo (2002)] natural vegetative enhancement of Vicente Creek (exact location of the 1933 colony), including removal of fill anddebris from the creek and extirpation ofinvasive plant s. A chief rationale for this plan is protection of theCalifornia red-legged frog , also an endangered species. As a further measure of protection,Monterey County, California has explicitly included ["Local Coastal Program", Monterey County, California, September 2004] Hickman's potentilla as a species to be protected via its Local Coastal Program pursuant to state ofCalifornia requirements. While the species is listed as federally and state endangered, TheCalifornia Native Plant Society has set the further designation of "seriously endangered". This appellation is provided to any plant that has fewer than six occurrences, exists on less than 2000 acres (8 km²) of land area or has fewer than 1000 knownorganism s. Hickman's potentilla satisfies the first criterion.ee also
*
California coastal prairie
*Riparian zone
*Marshland
*Monterey Pine
*Vernal pool References
External links
* [http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi/Go?_id=potentilla_hickmanii&sort=DEFAULT&search=Potentilla%20hickmanii California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants]
* [http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-SPECIES/1995/August/Day-02/pr-344.html Full text of original Federal Register basis for listing as endangered species]
* [http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/EASTWOOD.html Harvard University article on Alice Eastwood]
* [http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=POHI5 Profile from the USDA Plants Database]
* [http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?416395 U.S. Department of Agriculture fact sheet for "P. Hickmanii"]
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