Feature: Aberdeen Plant Materials Center Grows Rare Plants for WRP Site

Derek J. Tilley, Aberdeen Plant Materials Center 

In 2006, the Aberdeen Plant Materials Center (PMC) accepted a request to propagate 300 plants of Indian Valley sedge (Carex aboriginum M.E. Jones) as part of a project to reestablish populations in its native habitat at the “Jewel Wetland” in southwestern Idaho.  

This unique species was first collected in the Weiser valley by Marcus E. Jones on July 12, 1899, at Indian Valley, ID and wasn’t seen again for 100 years. The species was thought to be extinct, until 1999, when a population was discovered south of Council, in Adams County, ID. As a result, Indian Valley sedge was moved from the Idaho Native Plant Society’s Taxa Believed to be Globally Extinct category to the Global Priority 1 category.

This project is being coordinated by the NRCS Payette Field Office on a Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) site in cooperation with land owners Jon and Mary Trail, with support from the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley. The project involves several interested parties, including the U.S.D.A. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Volunteers from these agencies have assisted in seed collection and will be on hand to transplant greenhouse grown plants at the WRP site. - Feb 2007

Seeds are presently undergoing stratification at the PMC and will be planted into blocks of greenhouse root trainers later this winter to be ready for transplanting in April 2007.

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