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The thread-leaved brodiaea is nothing if not shy, spending most of its life nestled in a cocoon of warm earth. Its beauty when it blooms, however, is worth the wait: for only a few months each year, it rises from its hiding place and splashes the California landscape with sprays of pale violet flowers. Yet even the earth can’t shelter this lovely plant from the danger it now faces. As California’s cities continue to grow, this plant’s traditional range is paved over, and the reclusive thread-leaved brodiaea — which occurs nowhere else in the world — needs our protection more than ever.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR LISTED: 1998
CRITICAL HABITAT: 597 acres in Los Angeles and San Diego counties designated in 2005
RECOVERY PLAN: None
RANGE: California’s Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Orange, and Riverside counties
THREATS: Habitat destruction from urban and agricultural sprawl, wetland alteration, trampling, and competition from nonnative species
POPULATION TREND: The thread-leaved brodiaea remains below ground for most of the year, and only a portion of any population flowers during any given year, making actual population numbers difficult to determine. Current figures range from 25 populations (according to the California Department of Fish and Game) to 84 populations (according to the Carlsbad Fish and Wildlife Office). All sources agree, however, that the plant’s populations are in significant decline.
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SAVING THE THREAD-LEAVED BRODIAEA
Since 1998, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the thread-leaved brodiaea a threatened species — but refused to grant it critical habitat — the Center has been working to protect this rare plant from the increasing danger it now faces.
We first contested the thread-leaved brodiaea’s lack of federally protected habitat in 2001. In 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally announced that it would consider granting the plant critical habitat totaling 4,690 acres, spread across 10 sites in Southern California. But later that year, the Service announced that it would designate for the plant just 597 acres in two sites, only 13 percent of the original lands considered. The Service attempted to justify the decision by saying that designating critical habitat “provides little additional protection” for threatened species. Since then, the Center has filed suit against the Bush administration for its failure to protect enough habitat to ensure the thread-leaved brodiaea’s recovery, and in 2008 the Service promised to reconsider its flawed 2005 decision. We’ll continue our work to help this rare and beautiful plant until it gets the protections it deserves.
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Contact: Ileene Anderson
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