By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on January 14, 2005
There is no native-plant equivalent of the black-capped vireo, Comal blind salamander, nor gray wolf. Any one of these endangered animal species might halt development of an area in which it lives. At the same time, endangered native plants, especially on private lands, receive little protection under either federal or state laws.
Do we have our priorities mixed up when it comes to protecting rare and endangered species? Does it make sense that plants get so little attention? Of course, each species is a part of a whole ecologic system, but which group, animal or plant, is likely to be more integral to the system?
My guess is that plant species commonly are more critical parts of an ecosystem than the mammals and birds. Each root system uniquely affects a whole realm of microscopic soil organisms, and it influences the rate of decomposition, depletion, and erosion of soils. Above-ground parts of plants control runoff, infiltration, and evapotranspiration of rainwater. Leaves and branches also feed, shelter, and otherwise support all manner of herbivores, many of which, in turn, provide food for all manner of other animals.
Every plant influences several parts of its greater ecosystem. Extinction of a single species of plant is likely to bring wide-ranging, domino-effect changes to that natural environment. Endangered plants, however, do not seem to engender the same sort of public alarm and sympathy as endangered mammals and birds do.
Despite the fact that there are not meaningful laws requiring protection of rare and endangered plant species, many landowners, once they are aware of such plants, do act to protect them. Friends of mine who are professionally concerned with rare and endangered plants say that private landowners commonly are the most effective stewards of native species.
For this reason, people I know at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department are so appreciative of landowners’ efforts in helping protect rare or endangered plants that they will not disclose any information on locations of these plant populations on private lands.
Last January, a list of rare plants of Texas was published by the Wildlife Diversity Program of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Conservation Data Center of The Nature Conservancy of Texas. Several of these species are endemic to our part of the Texas Hill Country.
One of these is big red sage (Salvia penstemonoides), which is known to exist today in only a few localities in three counties. Of the known populations of big red sage, Kendall County has the largest and most viable. Big red sage has a global ranking of G-1 and a state ranking of S-1, but no federal status. Rankings of G-1 and S-1 are given to plants that are critically imperiled because extreme rarity or some factor of their biology makes them particularly vulnerable to extinction. The rankings carry no protection by law.
Other local plants on the list are canyon mock orange (Philadelphus ernestii) and Texas mock-orange (P. texensis). Both of these have G-2 and S-2 rankings, imperiled because rarity or other factors demonstrably make it very vulnerable to extinction.
Big red sage, mock-orange, and several other endemic plants grow in a unique and fragile environment southeast of Boerne, where the proposed route of Boerne Loop would drastically change the habitat. Habitat loss is the number one cause of extinctions in both plants and animals.
