A botanical reminisce: Gall-of-the-earth (Prenanthes trifoliolata)

About this time of year - early winter - I begin to internally lament the lack of flowering plants. We recently had about five inches of snow, and nighttime temperatures are dipping into the low to md-20's F, with teens soon to come. For the botanically inclined, such as your narrator, this means a few months of a floral dry spell, which occasionally makes me pine for warmer seasons (much as I love winter, snow, cold, diving ducks, raptors, etc.).

I've been spending scads of time with the photographic files, catching up on labeling and archiving a backlog of unprocessed material, and digging out material for a few new projects. In the course of that, I often run across old stuff that brings back good memories, and this post features one of those subjects - one that I never got around to blogging about (I did have a blog in 1997 - the year the word "blog" was coined, although I didn't know to call my site that, then).

On August 26, 1997, I was botanizing a high, dry ridge deep in Shawnee State Forest. This is Ohio's largest contiguous forest at around 71,000 acres, and it is a hotbed of biodiversity, both floral and faunal. Shawnee is truly a state and national gem, and enormously significant to the conservation of scores of species. Many state-listed endangered and threatened species occur here.

WAY back in 1997, the forest was not as well explored botanically as it now is and wasn't as much on the radar screen. Nonetheless, I am sure that rarities remain to be discovered.

Anyway, at that time, I was keen on discovering a plant species that I figured surely must occur in Ohio and constantly kept my eyes open for it. And it was on this date, at the exact spot in the photo above, that I finally discovered it. While the plant in question is quite tall, with some specimens towering to six feet or more, it is a spindly species that can be passed by. Several flowering specimens are in my photo, but good luck spotting them. To compound matters, the plant in question closely resembles another species in the same genus and could easily be dismissed as its commoner brethren.

Here's the USDA Plants Database map of the species in question (click to enlarge, if so desired), which is known as Gall-of-the-earth (Nabalus trifoliolatus). Field botanists pore over maps such as this, seeking likely new native plants to discover in their state. In this case, it seemed that there was a high likelihood that Gall-of-the-earth (weird common name; "gall" means bold or impudent) should be in extreme southern or eastern Ohio, as it ranges right up to our borders in those regions.

I should note that there are two errors on this map, in regard to Ohio. The Ashtabula County record (farthest NE county) is apparently in error, based on a mention in Gray's Manual of Botany. No documenting specimen can be located, so that record must be regarded as hypothetical. The southern county highlighted in green is Adams County. It should be Scioto County, the county immediately to the east. That's apparently an error by the USDA Plants Database.

Anyway, back to the find. As I walked the road banks in the first photo, I saw a number of towering specimens of "wild lettuces" (as members of the genus Nabalus [at the time of this discovery, Prenanthes] are sometimes known. The rub with an easy identification is White Rattlesnake-root (Nabalus alba). It resembles Gall-of-the earth to a great degree and is locally common in Ohio with records from at least 35 counties.

A flower and buds of Gall-of-the-earth. The smoking gun for identification of this species, which is easily enough seen in the field, is the color of the pappus hairs, which subtend the flowers and fruit. I located some mature flowers, mostly past, pulled some of the pappus for inspection, and Voila! The pappus was pale white - quite unlike the cinnamon-brown coloration of the look-alike White Rattlesnake-root. I finally had found Gall-of-the earth in Ohio.

Here's my original specimen of Gall-of-the-earth, collected on August 26, 1997 - the same day I made the above photos. This one is housed at the Ohio State University herbarium. A duplicate specimen is at the Miami University herbarium.

Twenty-eight years have now passed since this find, and no other populations of Gall-of-the-earth have been found. In a good year, the tiny area where it occurs in Shawnee State Forest might host 80-100 plants - a true endangered species, which is how it is listed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. You can see that list RIGHT HERE. It'd be awesome if someone could find more Gall-of-the-earth, ideally in another county (or two, or three...).

Finding a new native plant species for Ohio is always a thrill, and the experiences remain etched in my mind. To date, I've discovered or co-discovered a dozen new ones and rediscovered nine extirpated plants - species that no one has seen in at least 20 years, and in most cases, it's been far longer than that.