Rare Care

	The Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program is dedicated to conserving Washington's native rare plants through methods including ex situ conservation, rare plant monitoring, research, reintroduction, and education.

Research Summary
Dr. Sarah Reichard and her students are researching several rare plant species
at the Center for Urban Horticulture.

Astragalus sinuatus Hackelia venusta Fritillaria camschatcensis		Sidalcea oregana var. calva Castilleja levisecta
*Hackelia venusta* Ms. Jeanie Taylor is researching pollinators, breeding system and seed germination requirements for the endangered Washington State plant, Hackelia venusta (showy stickseed). In the laboratory, Ms. Taylor hand pollinated potted plants and germinated the resulting seeds, and also germinated wild-collected seeds from her field site. At the field site she observed and collected three species of pollinators. In order to test the effect of cross pollination and self pollination, she compared seed set from flowers which had pollinators excluded with seed set from open pollinated flowers. Hackelia venusta		A section of the Hackelia venusta flower cut open, showing reproductive parts down inside the lower part of the corolla Since self pollination and cross pollination have different effects on gene flow in a population and affect the survival of seedlings, this information will help land managers make decisions about methods of reintroduction or habitat improvements to help the population expand and stay healthy.

Using Hackelia diffusa var. arida as a surrogate species, Ms. Taylor developed a protocol for germinating H. venusta seeds. Ms. Taylor used her protocol and Rare Care's new incubators to test germination percentages for H. venusta. She found that seeds were dormant, and that a certain period of cold, moist stratification was needed to induce germination.


More Research
Astragalus sinuatus Fritillaria camschatcensis Sidalcea oregana var. calva Castilleja levisecta