Web Posted: 03/11/2004 08:44 AM CST
Hidden in plain sight deep within a San Antonio park, protected by a tall fence erected by a nature-loving Boy Scout, a cluster of lavender-purple wildflowers is battling back from near extinction.
The bracted twistflower has been found so far only in 20 small patches in Central Texas. The only known population in Bexar County was rescued by a Boy Scout two years ago as a project to earn his Eagle Scout rank.
Officials gathered in Austin on Wednesday afternoon for a ceremony to recognize private landowners, nonprofit organizations, state and federal agencies, and wildflower enthusiasts for their efforts to preserve the rare plant.
A member of the mustard family, the bracted twistflower exists only on the rocky limestone slopes and terraces in the juniper-oak woodlands of the Balcones Escarpment — the edge of the Texas Hill Country.
The plants die each winter and come back from seed each spring. They range from 1 to 3 feet tall and put out their delicate blooms in April and May.
Officials say the plant often is hard to spot among winter-browned shrubs. Leaves on the upper part of the plant wrap around the stem, like those of local common mustards, and have smooth margins. Leaves on the lower stem are on long stalks and are often deeply incised, like those of a dandelion.
Josh Ellis, a 17-year-old from San Antonio, earned his Eagle Scout rank in 2002 by rounding up donated materials and digging into the rocky soil to erect a fence around the only known stand of the flowers in Bexar County, according to the April 15, 2002, issue of the Texas Parks and Wildlife News.
Ellis has since moved to Oklahoma.
The population is in a remote area of Eisenhower Park.
Ellis decided to build the 8-foot fence around the colony of plants to protect it from deer, rabbits and other plant eaters that devour the plant when they find it.
"I think where I really earned my right to Eagle Scout rank came when I stuck my shovel into the Hill Country landscape — it's practically solid rock," Ellis said in the article.
Over the past 150 years, the plant has been noted in seven counties along the escarpment, but recently it's been found in only four. Besides the colony in Bexar, there's one in Uvalde, seven in Medina and 11 in Travis.
Seven of the 11 populations in Travis County are on private land and, for the past three years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the city of Austin, Travis County, the Lower Colorado River Authority and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center have worked to preserve the stands.
The six partners at a Capitol ceremony Wednesday signed a memorandum of agreement outlining strategies to save the plant in its native habitat.
The federal wildlife service is the agency responsible for listing rare plants and animals as endangered or threatened; but for plants, listing affords real protections only on federal land.
"Our ultimate goal is to avoid the need to list a species and to encourage and work with crucial partners to conserve and promote the survival of those species in the wild," said Robert Pine, a spokesman for the wildlife agency in Austin.
According to the Center for Plant Conservation, the primary threats to the survival of the plant are browsing deer, residential development and habitat alteration by fire suppression. The primary custodian of the plant in the CPC's National Collection of Endangered Plants is the San Antonio Botanical Garden, which keeps seed for the plant.