Abstract
Physaria globosa (Brassicaceae), commonly known as Short's Bladderpod, is a federally protected species restricted to Tennessee, Kentucky, and southern Indiana. In 2016, we studied aspects of life history and ecology in a population of P. globosa near Hartsville, Tennessee. Our objectives were to document fecundity-related life history traits and to examine the potential influence of light levels and soil depth on plant growth and reproductive output. In addition, we examined 45 herbarium specimens of P. globosa to assess the potential relationship between taproot size and number of inflorescences per plant. We found the strongest positive relationships between the number of flowering stems per plant and the number of flowers and fruits per plant. Relationships between light levels, soil depth, and biotic factors were only weakly significant. Taproot width was positively correlated with the number of flowering stems on herbarium specimens. Our findings increase the life history and ecology knowledge base available to guide ongoing recovery efforts for the species.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 20-38 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Castanea |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This research was supported through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Cooperative Agreement Award No. F15AC00484). The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We thank Tracy Brown, Bleu Jackson, Jana Lack, Jessica Oldham, and Benjamin Richie for assistance in the field and with seed germination trials. We thank Andrea Bishop, Caitlin Elam, Sunny Fleming, Roger McCoy, and Stephanie Williams at the Tennessee Natural Heritage Program, Tara Littlefield at the Kentucky Natural Heritage Program, Mike Homoya at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and Matthew Albrecht and Quinn Long at the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at Missouri Botanical Garden. Access to the Hartsville study site was provided with permission from Tim Higgs at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We thank Corey Blackwelder for assistance with measurements of herbarium specimens, Christopher Murray for guidance with ImageJ2, and Samantha Allen for generation of the original distribution map of P. globosa in ArcGIS.
Keywords
- Physaria globosa
- conservation
- fecundity
- life history
- plant reproduction