Dec 7, 2017 5 min read

It’s not often that checkered rattlesnake-plantain, Marguerite’s Club Moss, northern green orchid, sand grape and nodding pogonia make the news.

But the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is asking for public input on native wild plants as it updates regulations that apply to conservation for the first time in nearly 25 years.

The proposed updates to the list include:

• Adding nine plants.
• Moving other plants from a lesser conservation concern to a higher one.
• Downgrading two plants.
• Removing 31 plants from the list
• Changing the scientific names of 79 species for accuracy’s sake.

According to a news release from DCNR’s Bureau of Forestry, its mission includes protecting and managing native wild flora by determining status, classifying, and conserving native wild plants.

Lisa Cessna, executive director of the Washington County Planning Commission, which oversees county parks, recalled a bridge project years ago in Hanover Township where a botanist, at no charge to the county, performed an assessment related to a plant species known as the vase-vine leather flower, an endangered plant in Pennsylvania.

“There is a potential for a project to be significantly delayed, which can add to the cost of a project,” Cessna said of rare wild plants.

The botanist was to determine whether the leather flower grew in the area of the bridge project, its quantity and what impact the project would have on the plant. Ultimately, the bridge project was allowed to proceed.

If a project’s route can’t be changed, it is subject to review by the Department of Environmental Protection, which would require the county to mitigate earth disturbance.

Rebecca Bowen, ecological services section chief of the Bureau of Forestry, said use of an online tool can streamline submission of information about a wild plant review.

Cessna said the county rerouted a Mingo Creek County Park trail rather than disturb potential habitat for the snow trillium.

Pennsylvania uses several wild plant classifications such as rare, threatened and endangered, vulnerable extinct, tentatively undetermined and “special populations.” Ginseng is an example of a vulnerable species.

Pennsylvania is home to about 3,000 plant species, about two-thirds of which are considered native to the commonwealth, and 347 of them are considered rare, threatened or endangered.

The proposed rule-making was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin Nov. 25. There is a 30-day public comment period on the regulations. Comments can be submitted to WildPlant@pa.gov.

DCNR will address comments from the public, and eventually the House and Senate committees on Environmental Resources and Energy will review them.

Many factors can threaten populations of plants and cause them to become rare. Some of the most common threats to plants in Pennsylvania include:

• Habitat loss and fragmentation due to development or conversion of habitat
• Invasive plants displacing native plants.
• Creation of more edge habitat, increasing the threat of invasive plant species
• Selective browsing by white-tailed deer or other wildlife that may prevent plants from reproducing

DCNR also asks that people not pick native wild plants, because it means they will not go to seed. It suggests that people photograph them instead.

The department also discourages people from digging up specimens to transplant to home gardens, cautioning that they probably won’t survive the change in habitat. It also asks that people plant native species purchased from a garden center rather than choosing invasives.

For more information about the rule-making and wild plants, visit the DCNR website at www.dcnr.pa.gov, and choose “Conservation.”

Oh, and that checkered rattlesnake-plantain at the beginning of this article – it and the other plants named in that paragraph are being reclassified, mostly due to low numbers.

Other plants being reclassified due to a finding that the plants are not native to Pennsylvania include floating bladderwort, American lotus and little water duckweed, no matter how endearing or quirky their names may be.