University of Maryland Newsdesk.

For Immediate Release
May 7, 2012
Contacts: David Ottalini, 301 405 4076 or dottalin@umd.edu

University of Maryland Efforts to Save the Sundial Lupine Shows Success

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - One of Maryland's most rare and beautiful wildflowers - the sundial lupine - has a new lease on life thanks to efforts by the University of Maryland's Arboretum and Botanical Garden (Landscape Services). Since 2009, Arboretum Director Karen Petroff and her staff have operated what is called The Rare Plant Heritage Project. It's a statewide effort to find, monitor and ultimately save populations of sundial lupine.

Petroff said, "Many lupine sites had not been observed for more than 15 years. Property owners didn't always understand how rare the wildflower was or even knew it existed on their land. That's why it is important to know the locations of all the existing lupine populations."

The lupine is also important to other wildlife - frosted elfin butterflies prefer lupine meadow habitat and their caterpillars rely heavily on them for food. With the lupines endangered, so were the butterflies.

Maryland's Natural Heritage Program had an old list of 22 sites, but few had been observed in the past 15 years due to lack of staff. That's when the Arboretum and Botanical Garden Project Leader Sara Tangren stepped in. She used a variety of methods from interviews to aerial photography to discover 29 more lupine sites around the state.

The lupines have been under intense pressure from shade, mowing, herbicidal application, invasive plants, deer grazing, and/or development. But Tangren said that when property owners were approached and told that the wildflower was growing on their property, they were enthusiastic about helping preserve them.

In 2010 - she told Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) that lupine was growing on a rocky knoll under the power lines north of Baltimore. The plants were sickly and had virtually no flowers.

The company immediately swung into action as Sara Pyrant, forester for BGE rewrote the utility's site vegetation management plans to help preserve and nurture the wildflower. By 2011, a healthy lupine meadow covered nearly an acre of land - the only one in Baltimore County. BGE forester Dan Neal has also been instrumental in preserving an additional lupine site in Anne Arundel County.

Working closely with Dr. Tangren and the University of Maryland's Arboretum and Botanical Garden to protect the rare lupine population that is growing on BGE's right of way was quite a unique and rewarding experience, said Pyrant. BGE has a strong commitment to environmental stewardship and this is one example of the many ways in which we work with the communities we serve to preserve and enhance Maryland's natural habitat. We are pleased to aid in the preservation of such a beautiful and rare native species, as well as to preserve the wildlife that relies on the lupine to survive.

Tangren said that thanks to efforts by the University of Maryland's Arboretum and Botanical Garden and partners including the state of Maryland, BGE, individual property owners and the Nature Conservancy, there are now five secure lupine sites and 22 rescued sites in the state. "That means," said, Tangren, "that sundial lupines will continue to grace the rocky knolls and sandy ridges of Maryland for decades to come."

MEDIA: There are sundial lupine sites in Maryland that can be visited now - while the wildflower is at its peak. Please contact either Sara Tangren (UMD) or Rachael Lighty (BGE) for more information and to visit the site.

Contact Information:

Adj. Professor Sara Tangren
Plant Science & Landscape Architecture
1111 Research Greenhouse
University of Maryland,
College Park, MD 20742-4452
301 580 6237

Rachael L. Lighty
BGE Corporate Communications, Marketing & Community Relations
2 Center Plaza, 110 W. Fayette Street
Baltimore, Md. 21201
Direct Line: 410-470-4040
Media Inquiries: 410-470-7433
 

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