FAMILY: Caryophyllaceae
STATUS: Endangered, Federal Register, January 18, 1991
DESCRIPTION AND REPRODUCTION: Fringed campion is a perennial herb that spreads vegetatively by long, slender, stolon-like rhizomes and leafy offshoots, both terminating in overwintering rosettes. Rosette and lower stem leaves are opposite, obovate, 3-9 centimeters (1 to 4 inches) long. Each rosette produces one to several flowering shoots, each of which is unbranched or sparingly branched, erect or ascending, up to 40 centimeters (16 inches) tall. The flowers are arranged in groups of three to five in a terminal cyme with leafy bracts. The calyx is tubular, 2 to 3 centimeters long, five-lobed, and covered with long, slender hairs. The five separate petals are each divided into a lower part about as long as the calyx and a triangular upper part that extends 3 to 4 centimeters from the calyx. The wide apex of each petal is divided into slender segments, giving the flower a fringed appearance. The petals are pink or white. Flowering is from late March to May (Kral 1983, Hitchcock and Maguire 1947, Faust 1980). This wildflower is very easy to propagate from cuttings (F.C. Galle in litt. 1977).
RANGE AND POPULATION LEVEL: Fringed campion occurs in two distinct geographic areas. The northern portion of its range is in central Georgia in the Piedmont very near the Coastal Plain sandhills, from Macon in Bibb County west through Crawford, Taylor, and Talbot Counties. The southern part of fringed campion's range is primarily along the east side of the Flint and Apalachicola Rivers at the boundary between Decatur County, Georgia and Gadsden County, Florida, with two sites in Georgia (Faust 1980, Allison 1988), and two in Florida, in and south of the town of Chattahoochee.
In the Georgia Piedmont, Allison (1988) counted at least 610 fringed campion rosette clusters at nine sites, with at least 225 rosette clusters at the largest site. Because the plant spreads vegetatively, the number of rosette clusters probably far exceeds the number of genotypes in any population. In central Georgia, fringed campion occurs "in various situations within hardwood forest. Often on fairly steep slopes of deep ravines or north-facing hillsides. Sometimes on nearly level ground, particularly in `flatwoods' developed on Iredell soils" (Allison 1988). Piedmont flatwoods are bottomland hardwood forests on level sites, with basic or circumneutral soils on mafic or ultramafic volcanic rock. Three sites are on flatwoods, six sites are on gentle to strongly north-facing slopes, and one site is on a gentle east-facing slope. All of the sites with fringed campion appear to be consistently moist, either from downslope seepage or from location in a bottomland.
In the southern portion of this plant's range, Allison (1988) counted at least 250 rosette clusters of fringed campion at the two southwest Georgia sites, where Faust (1980) had found about 625 plants; the difference in numbers may be due to a severe drought in 1988. In Florida, fringed campion occurs west of the Apalachicola River in Jackson County (Angus Gholson in litt. 1990; also a specimen collected in 1937 cited by Faust 1980 and Kent Perkins, Herbarium, Univ. of Florida, in litt. 1990). A distribution map (Hitchcock and Maguire 1947) that places the Florida distribution of fringed campion near the Suwannee River rather than the Apalachicola River is evidently incorrect. No herbarium specimens are known to support such a distribution (the New York Botanical Garden herbarium was checked by W. Thomas, in litt. 1990). One Florida population of fringed campion had about 250 plants in 1980, and was normally about this size (Faust 1980, reporting data from A. Gholson, Jr.). The sizes of the two other Florida populations are not available.
HABITAT: The Georgia Piedmont deciduous hardwood forests where fringed campion occurs have northern red and white oaks, mockernuts and pignut hickories, tulip trees, beeches, maples, and loblolly and shortleaf pines. Understory species include oak-leaf hydrangea, blue palmetto (Sabal minor), and Rhododendron minus (Faust 1980). At one site in Talbot County, Georgia, fringed campion occurs with the endangered relict trillium (Trillium reliquum) (Allison 1988). At another site, fringed campion occurs with Scutellaria ocmulgee, a candidate for listing.
Near the Georgia-Florida border, fringed campion occurs in rich wooded ravines with southern magnolias, tulip trees, maples, beeches, spruce pines (Pinus glabra), and sugarberries (Celtis laevigata). Understory trees include oakleaf hydrangea and redbud. Herbs include giant chickweed (Stellaria pubera) and bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), both northern species. The endangered Florida torreya (Torreya taxifolia) occurs in these ravines.
REASONS FOR CURRENT STATUS: Residential development and logging are the main problems. The spread of Japanese honeysuckle may also pose a threat. This species apparently always was rare, so the loss of even a few populations threatens the species.
MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION: Major needs are:
(1) Search for more populations, in hopes that a few more sites may be found.
(2) Protect sites from logging. Those sites that have been protected from recent logging need little further attention until the new stand of pines matures.
(3) Cooperate with private and public landowners. The fringed campion's range in central Georgia is entirely on private land. Local efforts have already saved several sites from logging, and only a relatively small total acreage needs to be protected. The southwestern Georgia part of this plant's range is on Corps of Engineers land, which is also inhabited by the endangered Florida torreya tree. At least two of the three Florida sites are on private land. One of the sites probably should be acquired for conservation purposes.
(4) Monitor sites for the well-being of the populations, after determining what information should be gathered. Watching for Japanese honeysuckle incursions (below) will probably be an important task.
(5) Investigate the effects of Japanese honeysuckle and possibly other exotics, such as the fern Lygodium japonicum, on fringed campion. Honeysuckle may be a sufficiently serious threat to native forest herbs to justify research on biological control.
(6) The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has established two new populations of this plant; establishment of more such populations may be feasible and desirable.
REFERENCES:
Allison, J.R. 1988. Report on a botanical survey of north-facing ravines and bluffs along the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers in southwestern Georgia. Report submitted to Fish and Wildlife Service, Jacksonville, FL. 100 pp.
Duncan, W.H. and L.E. Foote. 1975. Wildflowers of the southeastern United States. Univ. of Georgia Press, Athens. 296 pp. [illustration]
Faust, W.Z. 1980. Status survey for Silene polypetala. Prepared for Fish and Wildlife Service. On file at Jacksonville, FL office. 9 pp. + individual site reports. (Incorporates data from H. Daniel, A. Gholson, and R. Lane).
Hitchcock, C.L., and B. Maguire. 1947. A revision of the North American species of Silene. Univ. of Washington Publ. in Biol. 13:19.
Kral, R. 1983. A report on some rare, threatened, or endangered forest-related vascular plants of the South. USDA Forest Service Tech. Publ. R8-TP 2. 2 vols., 1305 pp.
McCollum, J.L. and D.R. Ettman. 1989. Georgia's protected plants. Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources and USDA Soil Conservation Service. 64 pp. (update of 1977 edition).
Pinnell, M. 1987. Micropropagation of two Georgia endangered species, Silene polypetala (Walt.) Fern. & Schub. and Baptisia arachnifera Duncan. Master's thesis, Univ. of Ga., Athens. 74 pp.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1988. Determination of endangered status for the relict trillium. Federal Register 53(64):10879-10884.
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