Hickman's potentilla
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''Potentilla hickmanii'' (called Hickman's potentilla or Hickman's cinquefoil) is an
endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...
perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...
herb of the rose family. This rare plant species is found in a narrowly restricted range in two locations in coastal northern
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, in Monterey County, and in very small colonies in
San Mateo County San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly ...
. This small wildflower,
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to western slopes of the outer coastal range along the Pacific Ocean coast, produces bright yellow blossoms through spring and summer. This species was formerly thought to be growing in
Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...
, but that population has been recently reclassified as another species, ''Potentilla uliginosa'', and is presumed extinct in that county. This plant, along with many other threatened species in the northern
California Floristic Province The California Floristic Province (CFP) is a floristic province with a Mediterranean-type climate located on the Pacific Coast of North America with a distinctive flora similar to other regions with a winter rainfall and summer drought climate ...
, 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 Hickman's potentilla in the form of official endangerment classifications and a species recovery plan, the latter promulgated by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
.


Description

''P. hickmanii'' is a long-lived, rosetted, nonglandular flowering plant with a thick
taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproo ...
. The stem is prostrate, 5–45 cm long. Blooming occurs between April and August. The
hypanthium In angiosperms, a hypanthium or floral cup is a structure where basal portions of the calyx, the corolla, and the stamens form a cup-shaped tube. It is sometimes called a floral tube, a term that is also used for corolla tube and calyx tube. It ...
is 3–6 mm wide, with yellow obchordate petals 6–11 mm in length. Up to 10
inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...
s may present in a single plant. Filaments are typically 1.5 to 4.0 mm in length, while anthers are only about 1.0 mm in size; moreover, the pistils generally number about 10 and the slender styles are about 2–3 mm long. The somewhat subglabrous leaves are
pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...
ly compound into generally six paired, palmately cleft leaflets. These basal leaves range from 6–25 in length with individual leaflets 2–8 mm long and about 2 mm wide. Four to seven leaflets occur per side, in a separated or overlapped configuration. The leaflets are wedge-shaped, typically having three or four teeth (lobes) and originate from about halfway along the leaf stem. The smooth
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s are about 2 mm in diameter and tan in color, looking like miniature watermelon seeds


Distribution and habitat

''P. hickmanii'' is currently known to occur in two coastal locations. The Federal Register documents colonies on the
Monterey Peninsula The Monterey Peninsula anchors the northern portion on the Central Coast of California and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and the resort and community of Pebble Beach. History Monterey Monterey was founded i ...
and at another area in coastal San Mateo County. The Monterey population is within the municipal boundaries of the city of
Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bot ...
, growing in a native grassland opening of the
Monterey pine ''Pinus radiata'' ( syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California and Mexico ( Guadalupe Island and Cedros island). It is an evergreen conifer in the f ...
forest at an old summer camp site. Plantings have been made, as attempts to establish new colonies in Monterey County at two areas the Point Lobos State Reserve, but those plantings failed by the summer of 2011 from the invasion of European weed grasses, and by the plantings situated too far from where the plants could easily be monitored or managed, and by planting in one site that was too wet for the species to survive. Another coastal colony was discovered in Moss Beach, California, in 1933 in a
wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
area at the mouth of San Vicente Creek; this colony was presumed extinct by at least the 1970s. Another population in San Mateo County was discovered in 1995 on the south slopes above Martini Creek (
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
quad reference Montara Mountain 3712254), on private land by biologists conducting surveys for the Devil's Slide highway project. In all cases, the populations are found between 10 and 135 m above sea level. The habitat for this species includes native grassland meadow openings in pine forests, coastal bluff native perennial grasslands, and under pine trees in duff. The key to the habitat for this species is the decomposed granite substrate that lies directly under the very fine-grained grassland topsoil.


History

The
Monterey Peninsula The Monterey Peninsula anchors the northern portion on the Central Coast of California and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and the resort and community of Pebble Beach. History Monterey Monterey was founded i ...
, discovery site of ''P. hickmanii'', is in a native grassland opening within the Monterey pine forest. The peninsula is influenced by a marine climate that is pronounced due to the
upwelling Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water from deep water towards the ocean surface. It replaces the warmer and usually nutrient-depleted surface water. The nut ...
of cool water from the Monterey submarine canyon. Rainfall is 40 to 50 cm per year, but summer
fog drip Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily in ...
is a primary source of moisture for plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low
precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
. Some taxa, such as the coastal closed-
cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...
pines and
cypresses Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the la ...
are
relict A relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. Biology A relict (or relic) 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. Geology and geomorphology In geology, a r ...
stands, e.g. species that once extended more widely in the mesic climate of the late
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
period, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
period between 6000 and 2000 BC.
Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. She published over 310 scienti ...
discovered ''P. hickmanii'' in 1900 on the Monterey Peninsula, a region then considered the fringe of civilization. The Big Sur wilderness lay just beyond, unpenetrated by any roads at that time. Eastwood, curator of botany at the
California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...
in San Francisco was a pioneer biologist in exploring this remote area. On an expedition to amass specimens of rare plants from this southern reach of Monterey County, she retrieved a specimen of this previously unrecorded plant and named this species after J. B. Hickman. Hickman was her guide on that collecting trip, and was the horticultural commissioner of Monterey County.


Conservation status

In 1973, the state of California recognized Hickman's potentilla as an endangered species. In the early to mid 1990s, a series of steps occurred that led to federal classification as an endangered species. Certain land development proposals came before the city of Monterey related to pine forest habitat area. In preparing an environmental impact report, information on occurrences of Hickman's potentilla was published. Subsequently, in 1995, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
(FWS) acted on this new information regarding a species that some thought extinct, and promulgated a notice of intent to classify the species as endangered. In 1998, the FWS officially classified Hickman's potentilla as endangered. After the FWS nomination process, further colonies in San Mateo and Sonoma Counties became defined. This chain of events illustrates the role of the environmental impact statement in elucidating scientific information germane to the understanding of an entire species, beyond the intended role of analyzing effects on the physical environment of a specific project. ''P. hickmanii'' continues to be pressured by urban development, especially on the Monterey Peninsula, with chief elements of golf courses and housing to support the expanding human population. These pressures are partially mitigated by species protection and recovery plans, the latter of which are recognized by the county, local cities, Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, and the state of California. However, the lack of any funding to implement any recovery plans causes the plans to only exist on paper, and the species is still in serious jeopardy without any annual action or recovery activities on the ground. The federal recovery plan (internationally called biodiversity action plan) is general in nature, calling for more natural-history study, population surveys, generalized protection, and a vague reference to new plantings. One of the best efforts to enhance the species may come from a program that is seemingly unaware of the species. The Fitzgerald Marine Reserve master plan calls for natural vegetative enhancement of Vicente Creek (exact location of the 1933 colony), including removal of fill and
debris Debris (, ) is rubble, wreckage, ruins, litter and discarded garbage/refuse/trash, scattered remains of something destroyed, or, as in geology, large rock fragments left by a melting glacier, etc. Depending on context, ''debris'' can refer to ...
from the creek and extirpation of invasive plants. A chief rationale for this plan is protection of the
California red-legged frog The California red-legged frog (''Rana draytonii'') is a species of frog found in California (USA) and northern Baja California (Mexico). It was formerly considered a subspecies of the northern red-legged frog (''Rana aurora''). The frog is an IU ...
, also an endangered species. As a further measure of protection,
Monterey County, California Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Monte ...
, has explicitly included Hickman's potentilla as a species to be protected via its local coastal program pursuant to California requirements. While the species is listed as federally and state endangered, the
California Native Plant Society The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California environmental non-profit organization (501(c)3) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for future generations. The mission of CNPS is to con ...
has set the further designation of "seriously endangered". This appellation is provided to any plant that has fewer than six occurrences, exists on less than 2000 acres (8 km2) of land area, or has fewer than 1000 known organisms. Hickman's potentilla satisfies the first criterion. The San Mateo County population occurs in small, scattered native-grassland sites on Montara Mountain and are currently threatened with extinction by the encroaching invasive European weed grasses such as ''Brachypodium'', ''Vulpia'', and ''Holcus'' species and two species of ''Briza'' or rattlesnake grass, which crowd out the plants. The annual weeds ''Plantago'' and flax and the perennial weeds cat's ears and Queen Anne's lace are also invading its habitat. Near one population, eight different weeds cover 45% of the area, and the seven other native plants of the native grassland community, make up 55% cover. Each year, all the weeds need to be cleared away at a sufficient distance from the ''P. hickmanii'' plants, and the area restored to as close to 100% native plant cover as possible, otherwise some of these populations could face extinction soon. An even more formidable challenge for the future of the San Mateo County populations will be the taller and more aggressive perennial exotic invasive grass, Harding grass (''Phalaris''), growing 2 m tall and forming a solid stand on the next mountain ridge, only a few hundred meters from the two largest colonies; this nearby infestation has the appearance of a weed-tsunami, engulfing every native plant in its path, and a tiny 5-cm-tall plant does not have a chance without assistance. Plant counts for each ''in situ'' population for this species: *Monterey County, Indian Village, Pebble Beach, between 1979 and 2008, the population varied between five and 35 plants, and a reference was made to outplanted ''P. hickmanii'' existing at this site in the 2009 FWS report. However, the original population in 2011 is presumed extinct at this site and the existing plants may be the survivors from plantings of nursery-raised seedlings grown in potting soil. The nursery-grown origin of individual plants could be confirmed, by examining the roots and finding remains of potting soil around such plants. In winter, the plants that still have any potting soil around their roots may benefit by having the artificial soil removed and the plants replanted bare-rooted, as the potting soil could wick moisture from around the roots in summer. *Monterey County, Eastwood collection, unable to locate site *Monterey County, Pacific Grove near the reservoir on road to Cypress point, was last seen 1968, and is presumed extinct. *Monterey County, Point Lobos State Reserve, experimental plantings at two sites, is presumed extinct. *San Mateo County, Montara Mountain, north of town of Montara, eight populations were found, counted, and mapped in 2008. Population #1= 4 plants, Pop.#2=11 plants, Pop.#3=about 1,060 plants, Pop.#4=about 2,000 plants, Pop.#5=26 plants, Pop.#6=12 plants, Pop.#7=3 plants, Pop.#8=45 plants. UPDATE: By summer 2011, the species largest population #4, as well as #6, 7, and 8, were presumed extinct, as these populations were buried under a 2-m-tall, solid cover of exotic Harding grass. Population #3, that covering 30 by 230 m in 2008, had diminished to only 14 by 20 m, and only about 300 plants were observed. San Mateo County, Moss Beach near Point Montara, presumed extinct, last seen in 1933 Some ''ex situ''plants may exist, grown in nurseries for research or study, for example, or at universities or botanical gardens, but those numbers are unknown.


Updated observations and conservation status

Update (2013) on populations in San Mateo County, Montara Mountain, north of town of Montara: Specific consistent counts of this species are difficult due to the low stature, extended flowering period, and difficult terrain, making year-to-year comparisons problematic. The 2013 surveys have clearly shown that population 4 still exists above the existing Harding grass invasion, with at least 500 plants found in this area. In 2014, hand weeding of the area around population during summer 2011 has significantly lowered the weed plant cover of the area, with the big rattlesnake grass (''Briza'') originally at 61% cover in 2011 is now down to 1% cover in 2014. The hillside of Harding grass where population 4 exists was mowed in summer 2014.Dremann, C. 2011, 2014 Potentilla hickmanii Vegetation transects


References


External links


California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants USDA Plants Database Profile: ''Potentilla hickmanii''
*
epa.gov: Full text of original Federal Register basis for listing as endangered speciesUSFWS 2009 Five Year Review of the status of Potentilla Hickmanii PDF file
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5231573 hickmanii Endemic flora of California Natural history of the California Coast Ranges Natural history of Monterey County, California Natural history of San Mateo County, California Natural history of Sonoma County, California Plants described in 1900 Taxa named by Alice Eastwood