"In the 1920s, noted botanist Earl Core discovered an uncommon Midwestern orchid in Pendleton Countys Smoke Hole canyon...
Eighty years after Core made his discovery, two graduate students were mowing invasive Japanese stilt grass out of a newly acquired 1,000-acre Nature Conservancy easement in the Grant County part of the Smoke Hole. They stumbled upon a second stand of crested coralroot. There had actually been another population of the orchid discovered in Grant County, but it was destroyed about 15 years ago, said Ashton Berdine of The Nature Conservancy, by a limestone quarry. Crested coralroot no longer exists in Maryland, and is considered vulnerable or imperiled in every other state where it grows. It is considered critically imperiled in West Virginia, according to NatureServe, a nonprofit that compiles data from state natural heritage programs. ... Hexalectris spicata, lives only in dry, open woodlands with rich soil a very specific, prairielike sub-habitat... The Smoke Hole, with its dry, rocky glades on nutrient-rich limestone soil, is a haven for an orchid more likely found in Texas. ... In West Virginia, the orchids main threat is Japanese stilt grass. Japanese stilt grass wasnt even in West Virginia in 1975, ... It came from Asia around the turn of the century. We believe china was packed in it, Berdine said. Now, wherever roads are cut, Japanese stilt grass is sure to follow. Thats what those two students were doing in the first place: mapping the encroachment of invasive species in the Smoke Hole, and testing herbicides to see how they affect the native plants." To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189. see a map : http://www.wvgazette.com/images/media/orchmap.pdf see photo : http://www.wvgazette.com/section/photos/2005121024?pt=0/orchid.jpg source : http://www.wvgazette.com/section/News/Valley%20&%20State/2005121024?pt=0 ************* regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
