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Pink sand-verbena, Abronia umbellata, is an endangered plant found at only a handful of sites in coastal sandy beach and dune ecosystems from Baja California to southern British Columbia. Threats include demographic collapse, habitat alteration and disturbance, and invasive species. In Canada, pink sand-verbena is known from just three localities,...
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... August and September 2006 we surveyed for pink sand-verbena populations along 75 sandy beaches on the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, from Port Renfrew to northern Nootka Island (Figures 3 and 4). Beach access was by boat, helicopter, and foot. The study area centred on and extended beyond the historic Canadian range, and was determined based on initial review of aerial photos and geomorphology maps, expert interviews, and budget. We simultaneously collected data on beach substrates, exposure, vegetation, threats, and beach morphology in order to identify potential reintroduction sites. We evaluated beaches by comparing data to the known habitat preferences of the taxon, filtering out any sites that lacked one or more essential habitat attributes and scoring the remainder based on habitat quality and threats. We obtained 14 seeds collected from Clo-oose in 2000, and attempted to germinate them in a greenhouse environment according to methods established by the U.S. pink sand-verbena recovery team (T. Kaye, pers. comm.). A second batch of seeds, collected in 2000 and 2001, were held back until the efficacy of our germination technique was verified. We x-rayed this latter batch to determine quality, then germinated approximately 50% of viable seeds using the same method as was used for the first cohort, with the additional step of surface sterilization to prevent fungal contamination. Seeds were sewn directly onto the growth medium, which consisted of one part peat and three parts sand. Locating new populations of pink sand-verbena was the most logical way to achieve all or part of the recovery goal (1, 6), but we found no plants either at historic sites (Figure 5) or at previously un-surveyed localities. New populations of other nationally rare coastal sand-dune and beach ecosystem plants (e.g., beach morning-glory, Convolvulus soldanella, and American glehnia, Glehnia littoralis ) were documented for some of the surveyed beaches. A low number (ca. 5) of apparently high-quality sites were inaccessible in 2006 and remain to be surveyed. Twenty moderate to high potential reintroduction sites were identified and described based on the presence of: (1) suitable strandline vegetation; (2) fine to medium-grained sand substrates with a warm (south to southwest) aspect; (3) light to moderate amounts of invasive grass; and (4) low to moderate levels of human ...
