BLM Biologist discovers endangered plant

Few people can claim to have made a significant scientific discovery. A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming Rawlins Field Office biologist Frank Blomquist is one of the few.

In 1996, Blomquist, then a range management specialist, was conducting riparian surveys south of the Ferris Mountains in northwestern Carbon County. When lunchtime rolled around, he picked a large sand dune as a dining spot. As he sat there, he noticed a plant he'd never seen­ before — and Blomquist had seen a lot of plants. He sought help with the identification of the mystery plant from Amy Roderick, a graduate student at the University of Wyoming (UW), who was conducting a general floristic survey of the area. The two revisited the dune site in June 1998 and collected a sample of the plant in bud and early flower. Unfortunately, the plants were too immature to positively identify, but Roderick and other UW botanists suspected it could be a plant known as blowout penstemon (Penstemon haydenii).

In July 1999, Blomquist led Roderick and UW botanists Ernie Nelson, Walt Fertig, and Courtney Ladenburger back to the site. This time, the plants were in full bloom and could be positively identified as blowout penstemon. Just to be certain, the group sent samples to botanists at the New York Botanical Garden and the University of Nebraska. They confirmed the identity of the plant. The plant itself is an attractive milky-lavender and blooms in May and June. The lavender or vanilla-like fragranceof the plant is a distinguishing characteristic, because it is one of only two fragrant members of the 300 different penstemon species.

Why is the discovery of this plant in Wyoming significant? Until Blomquist’s discovery, it was believed that the blowout penstemon only existed in a handful of sites in the Sandhills of Nebraska. In fact, the species is so rare that it was thought to have become extinct in the 1940s, but it was rediscovered in 1968. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the plant as endangered in 1987. Blowout penstemon is Wyoming's first plant listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

One of the clues to the blowout penstemon's rarity is found in its name. It grows only in blowouts--wind-carved depressions in sparsely vegetated and active sand dunes. Early Nebraska naturalists reported that blowout penstemon was relatively common, depending on prairie fires and free-ranging bison herds to keep vegetation cover low on shifting dunes. The suppression of fire, leveling of dunes, reduction in grazing and cultivation of dune-stabilizing cover crops drastically reduced the amount of habitat available for the species in the Nebraska Sandhills. Other factors, including drought and insect outbreaks, are believed to have contributed to the species' decline.

In a recent report detailing the taxonomic and phylogenetic status of blowout penstemon, it is revealed that the Wyoming population of the plant is indeed a member of its own variety and is distinct enough from other population groups to warrant its own variant name. That name will be Penstemon haydenii S. Watson var. blomquistii.

An excerpt from a draft report by the University of Wyoming and the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) on page 18 reads: "Based on the results of our molecular and morphometric analyses, we conclude that Nebraska and Wyoming populations of Penstemon haydenii are sufficiently dissimilar to recognize the two sets of populations as distinct varieties.  Formal publication of the name, along with designation of type material, will be forthcoming in a peer-reviewed journal.  Our proposed name for the new variety is Penstemon haydenii S. Watson var. blomquistii.  The following description summarizes some of the information for that publication…" 

Rawlins BLM Field Office botanist, Frank Blomquist, will now and forever be memorialized in the nomenclature of Wyoming’s flora —and that is pretty neat. Blomquist exemplifies the dedication and hard work that so many BLM wildlife biologists, botanists, and fisheries biologists put in every day, but today, it’s his turn to be recognized for his work on a unique plant in a unique setting.