Mountain Campion - Minnesota's Rarest Plant?

Today I made my way to a large north facing cliff and talus slope on the lookout for rare and interesting plants and lichens. Recently I wrote about doing a similar adventure with John and Connor. Today I was at a different area, but saw many of the same species. After about a year of doing somewhat of a deep dive exploring the plants and lichens in this type of ecosystem, I feel like I am really starting to get the hang of identifying and finding some of the rarer species. Although there is still much much much more to learn and see. 

My main hope today was finding mountain campion (Silene hitchguirei). This species was first observed in MN by Otto Gockman in 2018. This was an extremely significant find, as this species had only been reported from the Rocky Mountains, the closest (known) population to this one is probably about 1,000 miles away. Which begs the question, how did this species get here? I would assume it is likely an arctic/alpine disjunct like so many other rare species that grow in this type of habitat. Or could a bird or something else possibly have transported a few seeds that just happened to land on suitable habitat and germinate starting, a new population? Or maybe some other way. Would this species be considered native then, or something else? This cliff supports what is seemingly the only known population in the area, although it's probably likely that this species is present in other similar areas. As more of an effort is placed into finding these potential populations (or lack there of) I'm sure some of these questions will be answered. The page for this species on the MN wildflowers website tells some of this story. While Joe and I were out looking for lichens this past winter, he pointed out the cliff it grows on and told me his relationship to the developing story. The botanists that were studying this species couldn't really get at it, so they drove to Joe's house to get a ladder, I'm guessing that is the one featured in the link above. 

When I got near the spot, I parked my car on the side of the road and started making my way to the base of the talus. After about 3 steps, I noticed moose tracks that lead right to where I wanted to go. I think following these gave me my good luck for the day. Before I could make it to the slope, I had to swim across the shoulder-deep water in the ditch after all the recent flooding. Luckily I had a change of clothes in my bag that I chucked across the ditch. It took me a while to climb the talus and get to the cliff. It was well worth the effort. On the cliff face I quickly found the mountain campion and a handful of other rare species. I found a clump of 5 plants that was relatively easy to access, I'm sure there were more plants in other more hazardous areas. 

Mountain Campion (Silene hitchguirei)
State Watchlist Species: Newly Discovered
Stems typically have 1 flower at the end with 5 white petals and covered in both glandular and non-glandular hairs - I'm guessing in a day or two these flowers will open


The stem is also covered in hairs

Stem leaves are also hairy, lance shaped and shorter than basal leaves

The entire plant is only about 4 inches tall

There were 5 total plants in the clump I saw

Following the moose tracks
State Special Concern Species

BONAP distribution of Mountain Campion

A few days later, I returned to the site to see if the plant was in bloom. It looked the same. I think it is already going to seed and I probably just missed the blooms by a few days. Although the return was not a waste; I noticed that one of the plants had leaf mines on two of its leaves.

Pegomya flavifrons leaf mine

Larva up close

Other rare species on the cliff included:

Alpine woodsia (Woodsia alpina) 
State Threatened Species

Powdery almond lichen (Amygdalaria panaeola) 
State Special Concern Species

Powdery twig lichen (Ramalina labiosorediata) 
State Watchlist Species: Geographically Limited 

Little emerald lichen (Myriospora smaragdula)

Lower down, the talus slope was also home to many rare species. 

Spiny heath lichen (Cetraria aculeata) 
State Watchlist Species: Newly Discovered
I believe this is also the only known location of this species in MN

Yellow lichen (Vulpicida juniperinus)
 State Watchlist Species: Newly Discovered

Pixie foam lichen (Stereocaulon pileatum)
State Special Concern Species 

Powdery almond lichen (Amygdalaria panaeola) 
State Special Concern Species

In one spot I saw the yellow lichen growing on top of the powdery almond lichen, which was about 8 inches away from the spiny heath lichen. What an amazing area for lichenizing!

I stopped on the driveway on my way home to appreciate the spotted coralroot in bloom.

Western spotterd coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis)























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