Solidago shortii
Encyclopedia
Solidago shortii, commonly known as Short's goldenrod, is a species of goldenrod
that is considered one of the rarest plants in the world. The only known populations of Short's goldenrod occur around the Blue Licks Battlefield State Park
area of Kentucky
and Harrison-Crawford State Forest
in Indiana
. It was listed on the Federal Register of Endangered Species on September 5, 1985, and was given a global rank of G1 (critically endangered) on February 29, 2000.
perennial
. It reaches heights of 60 – and has leaves
measuring 5 – long and 5 – wide. It produces yellow flower
s from mid-August to November, releasing seed
s from late September to late November.
Short's goldenrod reproduces vegetatively
by rhizome
s and sexually
by seeds. Plants are incapable of self-pollination
and because the vegetatively produced clones spread out, it is difficult to exactly estimate the number of true individuals in a population
. The goldenrod soldier beetle
plays an important role in cross pollination
, and bison
may have been important in distributing seeds at one time. Unlike other goldenrod species, Short's goldenrod does not appear to spread via wind distribution
of seeds.
Short's goldenrod differs from the more common goldenrod Solidago altissima
by being shorter and spreading more slowly (whether vegetatively or by seed). However, where it is established, Short's goldenrod is more drought
-tolerant. A number of sites have existed for at least 50 years.
Plants are upright to ascending, growing 60 to 130 cm tall with single stems or as clumps with 10 or more stems. They are produced from short, somewhat woody rhizomes. Plants produce basal leaves early in the growing season that wither away before flowering, and many mid- and distally produced stem leaves. Typically the lower third of the cauline or stem leaves wither away also before flowering. The short, firm cauline leaves are subsessile or obscurely petiolated with narrowly elliptic to lanceolate blades, with three nerves and distally serrate margins. Plants flower in August and October with 50 to 150 heads of flowers per flowering branch. The inflorescence
s are paniculiformly shaped with recurved branches on short sparsely strigose peduncles, 0.5–3 mm long. The bract
eoles are very small and linear in shape. The flower involucres are narrowly campanulate in shape and 4–5 mm long. Phyllaries are unequal, in 3–4 series, both lanceolate to linear lanceolate in shape. Each flower head has 5 to 8 ray florets and 5 to 9 disc florets; the ray florets have laminae 2–3 mm long and 0.75 mm wide, and the disc florets have corollas 3–3.5 mm long. The seeds are produced in fruits called cypselae which are 2 mm long and have moderately short-strigose hairs. The fruits are topped with silky hair-like pappi
2–3 mm long.
Significant areas of potential habitat for the plant were destroyed in the 1970s by construction of a new campground at Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. On December 16, 1981, a 6 ha
(15 acre) tract of land was donated to the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission
to create Blue Licks State Nature Preserve
, an area dedicated to preserving Short's goldenrod. Additional tracts were dedicated on June 16, 1998 and March 7, 2000, respectively, bringing the total area of the preserve to 21 ha (53 acres). Today, the preserve hosts the Short's Goldenrod Festival; all proceeds from the festival fund efforts to preserve the plant.
in 1842. It was named for Dr. Charles Short
of Louisville, Kentucky
, who discovered it growing on a limestone
outcrop known as Rock Island in the Falls of the Ohio in 1840. It was last collected from that location in 1860, but might have continued to grow there had it not been for the alteration of the island effected by the construction of McAlpine Locks and Dam
on the falls in the early 1900s. The species was considered extinct until ecologist E. Lucy Braun
discovered a population near Blue Lick Springs in Kentucky in 1939. Later that year, numerous populations of Short's goldenrod were reported growing on rocky slopes and pastures in the area, but only three of those still exist.
In 1995, ecologists attempted to re-establish the species in Falls of the Ohio State Park by planting seven clumps of the goldenrod. Those clumps were wiped out by flooding within a year. Six years later, three of those ecologists discovered a wild population of the plant while conducting a botanical inventory of the Blue River watershed in Indiana. Prior to this, there were only five known natural populations of the plant; all were near the junction of Robertson
, Nicholas
, and Fleming
counties in Kentucky, within a 2 miles (3.2 km) radius of Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. , the number of above-ground stems was listed at 73,620.
Goldenrod
Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America. There are also a few species native to Mexico, South...
that is considered one of the rarest plants in the world. The only known populations of Short's goldenrod occur around the Blue Licks Battlefield State Park
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park is a park located near Mount Olivet, Kentucky in Robertson County. The park encompasses , and features a monument commemorating the August 19, 1782 Battle of Blue Licks...
area of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
and Harrison-Crawford State Forest
Harrison-Crawford State Forest
- Licensing :The Harrison-Crawford State Forest is a large tract of protected forests in south central Indiana along the borders of Harrison and Crawford County.-Creation of the State Forest:...
in Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. It was listed on the Federal Register of Endangered Species on September 5, 1985, and was given a global rank of G1 (critically endangered) on February 29, 2000.
Description
Short's goldenrod is a rhizomatousRhizome
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...
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...
. It reaches heights of 60 – and has leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
measuring 5 – long and 5 – wide. It produces yellow flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s from mid-August to November, releasing seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s from late September to late November.
Short's goldenrod reproduces vegetatively
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
by 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...
s and sexually
Sexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction is the creation of a new organism by combining the genetic material of two organisms. There are two main processes during sexual reproduction; they are: meiosis, involving the halving of the number of chromosomes; and fertilization, involving the fusion of two gametes and the...
by seeds. Plants are incapable of self-pollination
Self-incompatibility in plants
Self-incompatibility is a general name for several genetic mechanisms in angiosperms, which prevent self-fertilization and thus encourage outcrossing...
and because the vegetatively produced clones spread out, it is difficult to exactly estimate the number of true individuals in a 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...
. The goldenrod soldier beetle
Soldier beetle
The soldier beetles, Cantharidae, are relatively soft-bodied, straight-sided beetles, related to the Lampyridae or firefly family, but being unable to produce light. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. One common British species is bright red, reminding people of the red coats of soldiers, hence...
plays an important role in cross pollination
Pollination
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilisation and sexual reproduction. Pollen grains transport the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself...
, and bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
may have been important in distributing seeds at one time. Unlike other goldenrod species, Short's goldenrod does not appear to spread via wind distribution
Biological dispersal
Biological dispersal refers to species movement away from an existing population or away from the parent organism. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population...
of seeds.
Short's goldenrod differs from the more common goldenrod Solidago altissima
Solidago altissima
Solidago altissima, late goldenrod, is a species of goldenrod native to much of North America. It is common in much of its range, and fairly tolerant of landscapes which have been disturbed by humans. It has been introduced to many parts of the world.-Description:S. altissima is one to two meters...
by being shorter and spreading more slowly (whether vegetatively or by seed). However, where it is established, Short's goldenrod is more drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
-tolerant. A number of sites have existed for at least 50 years.
Plants are upright to ascending, growing 60 to 130 cm tall with single stems or as clumps with 10 or more stems. They are produced from short, somewhat woody rhizomes. Plants produce basal leaves early in the growing season that wither away before flowering, and many mid- and distally produced stem leaves. Typically the lower third of the cauline or stem leaves wither away also before flowering. The short, firm cauline leaves are subsessile or obscurely petiolated with narrowly elliptic to lanceolate blades, with three nerves and distally serrate margins. Plants flower in August and October with 50 to 150 heads of flowers per flowering branch. The 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...
s are paniculiformly shaped with recurved branches on short sparsely strigose peduncles, 0.5–3 mm long. The bract
Bract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale. Bracts are often different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of a different color, shape, or texture...
eoles are very small and linear in shape. The flower involucres are narrowly campanulate in shape and 4–5 mm long. Phyllaries are unequal, in 3–4 series, both lanceolate to linear lanceolate in shape. Each flower head has 5 to 8 ray florets and 5 to 9 disc florets; the ray florets have laminae 2–3 mm long and 0.75 mm wide, and the disc florets have corollas 3–3.5 mm long. The seeds are produced in fruits called cypselae which are 2 mm long and have moderately short-strigose hairs. The fruits are topped with silky hair-like pappi
Pappus (flower structure)
The pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual disk, ray or ligule floret surrounding the base of the corolla, in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae. The pappus may be composed of bristles , awns, scales, or may be absent. In some species, the pappus is too small to see...
2–3 mm long.
Habitat
Short's goldenrod grows best in shallow, clay soils with full sun or partial shade. Ideal areas include pastures, rock ledges, limestone and cedar glades, and openings in woods and forests such as those created by power line rights-of-way. Such openings are most likely to occur naturally as the result of vegetative disturbances such as fires or heavy animal grazing. Ideal growing conditions exist in populations of more than 300 healthy plants spread over 10 or more acres with buffering vegetation for at least 1.6 km (0.994196378639691 mi).Significant areas of potential habitat for the plant were destroyed in the 1970s by construction of a new campground at Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. On December 16, 1981, a 6 ha
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
(15 acre) tract of land was donated to the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission
Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission
The Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission is an agency of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the United States dedicated to the protection of Kentucky's natural heritage...
to create Blue Licks State Nature Preserve
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park
Blue Licks Battlefield State Park is a park located near Mount Olivet, Kentucky in Robertson County. The park encompasses , and features a monument commemorating the August 19, 1782 Battle of Blue Licks...
, an area dedicated to preserving Short's goldenrod. Additional tracts were dedicated on June 16, 1998 and March 7, 2000, respectively, bringing the total area of the preserve to 21 ha (53 acres). Today, the preserve hosts the Short's Goldenrod Festival; all proceeds from the festival fund efforts to preserve the plant.
History
Short's goldenrod was first described by John Torrey and Samuel Frederick GraySamuel Frederick Gray
Samuel Frederick Gray was a British botanist, mycologist, and pharmacologist. He was the father of the zoologists John Edward Gray and George Robert Gray.-Background:...
in 1842. It was named for Dr. Charles Short
Charles Short
Charles W. "Charlie" Short was the first airport manager at the Tulsa Municipal Airport . In the right place at the right time, Short was working for oil baron William G. Skelly when Skelly and others signed a "stud horse note" that provided the financing needed to acquire land and construct the...
of Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, who discovered it growing on a limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
outcrop known as Rock Island in the Falls of the Ohio in 1840. It was last collected from that location in 1860, but might have continued to grow there had it not been for the alteration of the island effected by the construction of McAlpine Locks and Dam
McAlpine Locks and Dam
The McAlpine Locks and Dam refers to the series of locks and the hydroelectric dam in Louisville, Kentucky at the Falls of the Ohio. They are located at mile point 606.8 and control a 72.9 mile long navigation pool...
on the falls in the early 1900s. The species was considered extinct until ecologist E. Lucy Braun
Emma Lucy Braun
E. Lucy Braun was a prominent botanist, ecologist, and expert on the forests of the eastern United States.- Life :...
discovered a population near Blue Lick Springs in Kentucky in 1939. Later that year, numerous populations of Short's goldenrod were reported growing on rocky slopes and pastures in the area, but only three of those still exist.
In 1995, ecologists attempted to re-establish the species in Falls of the Ohio State Park by planting seven clumps of the goldenrod. Those clumps were wiped out by flooding within a year. Six years later, three of those ecologists discovered a wild population of the plant while conducting a botanical inventory of the Blue River watershed in Indiana. Prior to this, there were only five known natural populations of the plant; all were near the junction of Robertson
Robertson County, Kentucky
Robertson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population was 2,282. Its county seat is Mount Olivet, Kentucky. The county is named for George Robertson, a Kentucky Congressman from 1817 to 1821. Robertson is a prohibition or dry county...
, Nicholas
Nicholas County, Kentucky
Nicholas County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2000, the population was 6,813. Its county seat is Carlisle. The county is named for George Nicholas, the "Father of the Kentucky Constitution".- Geography :...
, and Fleming
Fleming County, Kentucky
Fleming County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1798. As of 2000, the population was 13,792. Its county seat is Flemingsburg. The county is named for Colonel John Fleming. It's a prohibition or dry county...
counties in Kentucky, within a 2 miles (3.2 km) radius of Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. , the number of above-ground stems was listed at 73,620.