THE GORGE — In the last decade, several previously-unknown native plants were described for science from the Columbia Gorge and nearby regions.
In the intersection between the Cascades’ dry rainshadow and their wet western slopes, the Columbia Gorge is a hotspot for endemic plants, said Ethan Coggins, a natural areas specialist with Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Endemic species are organisms that are unique to a single area, existing in a limited patch of habitat here, and nowhere else on earth.
“There’s lots of really special really cool plants that really are neglected and need a lot more research, and the Columbia Gorge is that kind of hotspot,” Coggins said. “There’s a lot of plants that are quite rare that are found only here, and we’re discovering new ones.”
Two lomatium species are among the newer finds. And papers describing a newly-discovered buttercup, found near the Gorge, are publishing this year, said Coggins, who mentioned he’s never lived in any other place with so many people deeply involved in plant conservation.
One lomatium, ribseed biscuitroot (Lomatium tamanitchii) was first found in 2007 and described in 2010. A golden-flowered perennial, it’s endemic to Klickitat County, where it’s limited to certain clay-rich soils that shrink and swell as their moisture content changes, creating a very specific habitat. One small patch, found in 2009, grows in Oregon. Listed as Sensitive in Washington, ribseed biscuitroot is thought to be endemic because the peculiar soil it needs is rare in the region.
Klickitat desert parsley (Lomatium klickitatense), described in 2018, is one of several lacy, springtime, yellow-flowered lomatiums growing in the region. Klickitat desert parsley grows east of the Cascades crest on both shores of the Columbia Gorge.
“Plant conservation and plant biology is not as charismatic as wildlife. And a lot of instances, if there was a species of coyote or something that someone had never seen before, that would just blow your mind, right? Because people are way more familiar with stuff like that,” Coggins said. “But there’s these little plants that are hanging around. And people just think, ‘Oh, it looks pretty similar to these other plants.' And they don’t really go any further than that.”
Some recent discoveries looked so much like known species, they went undiscovered for years. Local self-taught botanists played an important part in sorting out these discoveries and are authors on some of the papers, Coggins said.
“I want to just make it clear that you don’t have to go to college and have a degree to be an awesome citizen scientist and make really deep and meaningful contributions to our understanding of the natural world, you just have to be interested in fill out there,” he added. “And then a lot of times, you’re going to be one of the only people that cares enough to go out and see these things. And you might be the difference in finding something and protecting it before it’s lost forever.”
Helping describe a species for science is “probably the most important step” in its conservation, Coggins explained. Conservationists can only work to save a rare plant once they know it exists.
The Gorge’s rich mosaic of habitat makes it a rich hunting ground for botanists and plant enthusiasts of all kinds. “There’s still a lot of mysteries in the world,” Coggins noted. “And people are still finding really interesting things here in the gorge. And I think that that’s really special. And it’s because we live in such a special place, such a special and unique environment.”
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