Adopt-a-Species Assignment 1
Hello and welcome to "All about Plants," the show where it's all about plants! My name is Iman Evergreen and today we'll be talking about Gaura neomexicana var. coloradensis, known by it's more popular name - the Colorado Butterfly Plant, a perennial herb.
[source: US Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain-Prairie Region Endangered Species Program]
[source: US Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain-Prairie Region Endangered Species Program]
Gaura neomexicana var. coloradensis belongs to the kingdom Plantae and is a flowering plant. The class it belongs to, Magnoliopsida, is characterized by having two seed leaves (cotyledons) and cambium tissue in the stems. It belongs to the order Myrtales, and the family Onagraceae, which is also known as the Willowherb or Evening Primrose family. The Onagraceae family is characterized by having four sepals and petals. The Colorado Butterfly plant, of course, produces its own nutrients by way of photosynthesis.
This lovely plant is native to parts of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming and has been listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Consequently, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has designated (as of 11 January 2005) 3538 acres of critical habitat area inside the Platte and Laramie counties of Wyoming. A critical habitat area is an area of land that has been deemed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to have the necessary features needed to conserve the threatened/endangered species in question.
The Colorado Butterfly plant normally resides in moist areas of floodplains, and stands two to three feet tall with a few flowers open at a time that are white in color and redden with age. There are several primary threats to this beautiful herb, including but not limited to: loss of habitat due to urban development, haying, mowing, over-grazing, land conversion for cultivation, and non-selective use of herbicides.
This plant could be very useful for medicinal purposes, as are many native herbs. However, due to its declining numbers, research could be hard to conduct. The Colorado Butterfly plant could be adversely affected by global warming as well; the warming of the climate would cause the moist areas that the plant resides in to dry up, leading to the wipe out of this herb.
Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for your interest in threatened and endangered plants! Remember: we all share the earth so let's make it easier for our green neighbors to flourish!
Sources:
HighBeam Research, LLC. 2005. Info Please. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859430.html. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service. 2007. Colorado Butterfly Plant.
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=Q0VV. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region. No posting date known. Home Page.
http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/plants/cobutterfly/. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region. 11 Jan 05. Critical Habitat for Colorado Butterfly Plant Press Release. http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/pressrel/05-03.htm. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 28 Nov 06. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onagraceae. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
This lovely plant is native to parts of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming and has been listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Consequently, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has designated (as of 11 January 2005) 3538 acres of critical habitat area inside the Platte and Laramie counties of Wyoming. A critical habitat area is an area of land that has been deemed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to have the necessary features needed to conserve the threatened/endangered species in question.
The Colorado Butterfly plant normally resides in moist areas of floodplains, and stands two to three feet tall with a few flowers open at a time that are white in color and redden with age. There are several primary threats to this beautiful herb, including but not limited to: loss of habitat due to urban development, haying, mowing, over-grazing, land conversion for cultivation, and non-selective use of herbicides.
This plant could be very useful for medicinal purposes, as are many native herbs. However, due to its declining numbers, research could be hard to conduct. The Colorado Butterfly plant could be adversely affected by global warming as well; the warming of the climate would cause the moist areas that the plant resides in to dry up, leading to the wipe out of this herb.
Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for your interest in threatened and endangered plants! Remember: we all share the earth so let's make it easier for our green neighbors to flourish!
Sources:
HighBeam Research, LLC. 2005. Info Please. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sci/A0859430.html. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service. 2007. Colorado Butterfly Plant.
http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/SpeciesReport.do?spcode=Q0VV. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region. No posting date known. Home Page.
http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/plants/cobutterfly/. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region. 11 Jan 05. Critical Habitat for Colorado Butterfly Plant Press Release. http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/pressrel/05-03.htm. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. 28 Nov 06. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onagraceae. Accessed 22 Feb 07.
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