Piperia yadonii
Encyclopedia
Piperia yadonii, also known as Yadon's Piperia or Yadon's rein orchid, is an endangered orchid endemic to a narrow range of coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...

al habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 in northern Monterey County, California
Monterey County, California
Monterey County is a county located on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California, its northwestern section forming the southern half of Monterey Bay. The northern half of the bay is in Santa Cruz County. As of 2010, the population was 415,057. The county seat and largest city is Salinas...

. In 1998 this plant was designated as an endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 by the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 government, the major threat to its survival being continuing land development from an expanding human population
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...

 and associated habitat loss. One of the habitats of Yadon’s Piperia, the Del Monte Forest near Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

, is the subject of a federal lawsuit, based upon endangerment of this organism along with several other endangered species.

This wildflower
Wildflower
A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...

 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
Nutrient
A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...

 extraction from intermediate fungal
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...

s.

Description

Along with most other orchids P. yadonii: (a) is a bisexual perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 nongreen plant that grows from buried tuber
Tuber
Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

s; manifests a fruit capsule bearing numerous minute seeds; (b) exhibits pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 that is sticky, and which is removed as sessile
Sessility (botany)
In botany, sessility is a characteristic of plants whose flowers or leaves are borne directly from the stem or peduncle, and thus lack a petiole or pedicel...

 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 raceme
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

s. As with other Piperia, Yadon's Piperia exhibits a single veined flower one to two millimeters in width and a basal
Anatomical terms of location
Standard anatomical terms of location are designations employed in science that deal with the anatomy of animals to avoid ambiguities that might otherwise arise. They are not language-specific, and thus require no translation...

 rosette
Rosette (botany)
In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem.-Function:...

 leaf formation.

The subsurface architecture of this terrestrial wild orchid consists of a rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

 structure, from which emanate tuber
Tuber
Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

s. 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. 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
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 is borne on a single erect vertical spike varying from 12 to 55 centimeters in height. 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 tepal
Tepal
Tepals are elements of the perianth, or outer part of a flower, which include the petals or sepals. The term tepal is more often applied specifically when all segments of the perianth are of similar shape and color, or undifferentiated, which is called perigone...

s, 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. The extremely small seeds must come in contact with appropriate soil fungi
Fungus
A fungus is a member of a large group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds , as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from plants, animals, and bacteria...

 in order to germinate
Germination
Germination is the process in which a plant or fungus emerges from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the...

. 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
Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California coast and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County including the resort and community of Pebble Beach.-Monterey:...

. Tiny populations have been found in the Prunedale Hills; and an isolated southernmost population on Rocky Creek
Rocky Creek (disambiguation)
Rocky Creek may refer to:*Rocky Creek, Florida; an unincorporated community in Hillsborough County, Florida*Rocky Creek Bridge ; a bridge in Monterey County, California...

 Ridge (Cushing Mountain) at Big Sur
Big Sur
Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. The name "Big Sur" is derived from the original Spanish-language "el sur grande", meaning "the big south", or from "el país grande del sur", "the big...

. 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
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

.
Yadon’s Piperia is generally restricted to three habitats: (a)
Monterey pine
Monterey Pine
The Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata, family Pinaceae, also known as the Insignis Pine or Radiata Pine is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California....

 (Pinus radiata) forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

, sometimes with Gowen’s cypress (Cupressus goveniana
Cupressus goveniana
Cupressus goveniana is a species of cypress endemic to coastal California in the United States, where it is found in small, scattered populations, not in large forests.-Description:...

 ssp. goveniana
) which includes more than 80 percent of the known populations;
(b) California Northern coastal scrub
Northern coastal scrub
Northern coastal scrub is a scrubland plant community of California and Oregon. It occurs along the Pacific Coast from Point Sur on the Central California coast in Monterey County, California, to southern Oregon...

, with dwarfed Hooker’s manzanita
Manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus Arctostaphylos. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia, Washington to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and...

 (Arctostaphylos
Arctostaphylos
Arctostaphylos is a genus of plants comprised by the manzanitas and bearberries. They are shrubs or small trees.There are about 60 species of Arctostaphylos, ranging from ground-hugging arctic, coastal, and mountain species to small trees up to 6 m tall. Most are evergreen , with small oval...

 hookeri ssp. hookeri
) or Eastwood’s
Alice Eastwood
Alice Eastwood was a Canadian American botanist. Born in Toronto, she moved to the United States at 14, and from age twenty to thirty, was a teacher in Denver, Colorado and taught herself botany. In 1890 she assumed a post in the herbarium at the California Academy of Sciences...

 manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa); and (c) Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa
Cupressus macrocarpa
Cupressus macrocarpa, commonly known as Monterey Cypress or Macrocarpa, is a species of cypress that is endemic to the Central Coast of California. In the wild, the species is confined to two small populations, near Monterey and Carmel, California. These two small populations represent what was...

) forest. The colonies in woodland settings are found under partial canopy in an open, primarily herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 understory
Understory
Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

 shape.

The Monterey Peninsula and northern Big Sur areas are influenced by a marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 climate that is pronounced due to the upwelling
Upwelling
Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water. The increased availability in upwelling regions results in high levels of primary...

 of cool water from the Monterey submarine canyon
Monterey Canyon
Monterey Canyon, or Monterey Submarine Canyon, is a submarine canyon in Monterey Bay, California. It is the subject of ongoing study by the scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and other oceanographic institutions.Monterey Canyon begins...

. Rainfall is 40 to 50 centimeters per year, but summer fog drip
Fog drip
Fog drip is a type of precipitation that forms when fog droplets condense on the needles or leaves of trees or other objects, and drips to the ground....

 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
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of 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
Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California coast and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County including the resort and community of Pebble Beach.-Monterey:...

, where all colonies of Yadon’s Piperia occur, is recognized to have a high degree of species endemicism
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

. 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
Conifer cone
A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

 pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...

s and cypress
Cupressus
The genus Cupressus is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress. It is considered a polyphyletic group...

es are relict
Relict
A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon.* In biology a relict is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas....

 stands, e.g. species that once extended more widely in the mesic
Mesic
Mesic may refer to:* Mesic, North Carolina, a town in the United States* Mesic habitat, a type of habitat...

 climate of the late Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 period, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...

 period between 6000 and 2000 BC.

Yadon’s Piperia, along with certain other threatened species in the northern California Floristic Province
California Floristic Province
The California Floristic Province is a floristic province with a Mediterranean climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with a distinctive flora that bears similarities to floras found in other regions experiencing a winter rainfall, summer drought climate like the Mediterranean...

, 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, the latter promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats...

. Even with all these efforts, the total current population is not necessarily above the minimum viable population
Minimum Viable Population
Minimum viable population is a lower bound on the population of a species, such that it can survive in the wild. This term is used in the fields of biology, ecology, and conservation biology...

 without further elements of protection.

The listing as a federally endangered species occurred in 1998, prompted by a study conducted by Earth Metrics for the city of Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

, which found the colony in the Del Monte forest to be threatened by proposed land development. 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
Public notice
Public notice is a notice given to the public regarding certain types of legal proceedings.-By government:Public notices are issued by a government agency or legislative body in certain rulemaking or lawmaking proceeding....

 to classify the species as endangered.

Monitoring population
Population
A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

s of Yadon's Piperia is challenging since each tuber
Tuber
Tubers are various types of modified plant structures that are enlarged to store nutrients. They are used by plants to survive the winter or dry months and provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season and they are a means of asexual reproduction...

 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
Plant senescence
Plant senescence is the study of aging in plants. It is a heavily studied subject just as it is in the other kingdoms of life. Plants, just like other forms of organisms, seem to have both unintended and programmed aging...

; thus, a survey conducted during the flowering season will miss plants that have leafed out but not flowered.

External links

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