MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – A rare plant not seen in the state since 1916 and believed to be locally extinct has been found along a stream in Addison County.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife officials on Tuesday announced that the patch of false mermaid-weed, or Floerkea proserpinacoidesis, was found earlier this month. It happened after a turtle technician inadvertently found the plant while surveying habitat and took pictures of a rare species of wild garlic that happened to be growing next to the mermaid-weed.
“‘You won’t believe what you just accidentally found,’” Vermont Fish and Wildlife botanist Grace Glynn recalled telling her colleague. “We’ve been searching for this plant for years.”
Glynn returned to the site the next day and found hundreds of the plants growing on the floodplain. “We knew of two original sites where false mermaid-weed existed in the 1800s and early 1900s but is absent today. We think the species was lost from those sites perhaps due to development, invasive species, or extreme flood events. So, we’re thrilled to know that false mermaid-weed has persisted along a separate stream all this time,” Glynn said in a statement.
The annual herb with small, greenish flowers, is typically found in floodplain forests along low-gradient rivers. The species is Vermont’s only plant that is both a spring ephemeral and an annual, officials say.
Officials say they plan to work with nearby landowners to survey the stream for additional plants and that they have also now been documented on protected lands just downstream of the rediscovery site.