The Botanical Find of a Lifetime

As a botanist I am always dreaming of coming across a rare species of plant nestled somewhere for only the sharp-eyed naturalist to see.  Dreaming even deeper is the thought of discovering a plant or population that is new to Ohio or science altogether.  Well yesterday was the day I got to experience that high and raise my excitement in the botanical world to new heights!  Be prepared for some rambling and story-telling because the excitement is still flowing very swiftly through my veins and fingers.

Back in 1963 the famous botanist E. Lucy Braun was walking through a mesic forest in the Rocky Fork drainage of Scioto County, Ohio when she came across a species of plant that caught her eye.  The plant's flower was long gone but the interesting fruit is what got her attention.  She returned the next year in time to catch it flowering and discovered what is to this day the ONLY known population/area of Erythronium rostratum in the state of Ohio.  For over 40 years this population of Goldenstars has bloomed and gone to seed time and time again with no one ever finding another population...until now.

Yesterday I planned to spend the day botanizing and hiking with friend and Edge of Appalachia Preserve manager, Chris Bedel to see what unusual Spring bloomers we could find.  When I walked into the offices of the Eulett Center at 10a.m. little did I know what the day had in store for myself, Chris and fellow preserve manager Rich McCarty.  The day before while trudging through an area of forest way off the beaten path on the preserve, Rich found a patch of Erythronium americanum, commonly known as the Yellow Trout-lily that he thought to look a bit different.  He brought back a specimen to the office and encouraged Chris and I to take a look.  While it was too early for any E. americanum to be blooming (we checked several areas where it is known to bloom to find no evidence of it anywhere), it seemed even less likely that this could be the other plant easily confused with the Yellow Trout-lily; a plant found nowhere else in the state but one spot an hour or so to the east.  The more we looked at the plant Rich brought back the more curious and unsure of its true identity we became so we asked him to lead us to the spot where he found it.  After walking through several old fields, crossing a stream and entering the edge of an old woodland we came before a carpet of mottled green, fleshy leaves all adorned with a striking yellow bloom.  The woods was relatively undisturbed and mature with large Ash (Fraxinus spp.), Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and White Oak (Quercus alba) trees in the canopy and a thin understory of Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and one of my personal favorites, Leatherwood (Dirca palustris), both starting to bloom.  Old fields bordered two sides of the woods while the opposite end sloped down into a valley.  As I pulled out my camera and set it up to snap some photographs little did I know I would be the first person to ever photograph a new population of Erythronium rostratum in Ohio's history!

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

Some of you may be thinking, 'geeze, this looks just like the normal and much more common Yellow Trout-lily to me'.  That's potentially what makes this plant less rare and elusive than it really could be.  Some people may see these blooming in southern Ohio and mark them down as Erythronium americanum, not knowing we have a third member of the Erythronium genus hiding in amongst the foothills of Appalachia.  Rocky Fork has several areas where this plant blooms which I personally consider to be all one population since it grows in the same immediate area.  This is the first time it's been found in Ohio outside of this original range.  Special thanks to Daniel Boone and Rick Gardner for quickly confirming the identity of this plant from the pictures in my emails. 

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

There are two relatively easy ways to distinguish this as E. rostratum in the field.  Both the White Trout-lily (Erythronium albidum) and Yellow's blooms hang down from their peduncle in a drooping fashion.  To me it's almost like they are shy and a bit demure about their flowers appearance and don't want to show their faces.  The Goldenstar is on the other end of the spectrum.  It is quite proud of its blooms, standing them up on their stalks for all the world to see.  Maybe they know they are a rarity and are trying to get noticed.  It worked in Rich's case!  The other means of identification on the blooms is a bit more open to interpretation depending on who is looking at it.  On the other two Erythronium's the tepals (petals) are strongly reflexed, meaning they curve back from the plane of the flower.  With E. rostratum the tepals do not reflex and instead are spread out in a flat, star-like fashion.  What is flat and what is slightly reflexed is where the arguments can start but just about every flower in the area showed little to no reflexing while the other Erythroniums are obviously reflexed.  Gold color, star-like...wonder how they could have ever earned the name Goldenstars?

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

Taking a look at the back of the bloom the sepals exhibit a purplish-brown color while the golden yellow petals are striped with a few thin, brown lines.  The single best way to identify this species is once the plant goes to fruit.  If you are familiar with the other two species of Erythronium you know the ovary swells up into a green capsule at the end of the long peduncle and lays prostrate along the ground.  In the Goldenstar's case the peduncle curves upward towards the apex and holds the capsule erect, up off the ground.  Also the capsule itself provides the distinguishing characteristic of having a 'beak'.  In fact the latin species name of rostratum translates to 'beak'.  I plan on going back sometime in the next week or so to get some photographs of the maturing fruit.  I fear with nighttime temperatures in the 20's and daily highs only in the upper 30's and lower 40's forecasted for the next few days these already notoriously quick bloomers won't last very long at all.  Glad Rich, Chris and I came across them when we did!  As isolated and secluded as this population is I find it hard to believe that even after nearly 50 years and hundreds of botanists and naturalists looking for it this is the first time it's been discovered out of the Rocky Fork valley.  Crazy stuff!

Erythronium americanum

Erythronium americanum

Above are some photographs from last Spring of Erythronium americanum for comparative purposes.  Notice the heavy reflexing of the tepals in both photographs as well as a speckling of red dots on the inner petals.  Also in many of the Yellow Trout-lilies I see have red/orange stamens while the Goldenstar's are yellow.

This discovery goes to show just how important preservation and conservation of the natural world is; you just never know what is going to turn up where!  I am very thankful this population is already under the protection of the Edge of Appalachia's Preserve as well as being way off the beaten trail and not anywhere near any of the public trails.  Rich McCarty is well known for many other botanical discoveries in the Adams County area; including the finding of the rare White Lady's Slipper orchid (Cypripedium candidum) on the preserve a few years ago (can't wait to bring that to you when it blooms in May!).  I think this may be his best find yet and I am proud to say I was one of the first people to sit down amongst these rarities and truly soak in and appreciate their existence.  It's not everyday you get to be a part of something this exciting and groundbreaking!  Perhaps there's more Erythronium rostratum out there waiting on the Edge and beyond...I'd love to dedicate some time to finding out!