WI rare plant detectives find 22 new populations of rare plants
Volunteers find rare milkweeds, shooting stars, ferns & more
Rare Plant Monitoring Program volunteer Roberta Herschleb took our cover photo of a jeweled shooting star (Primula fassettii) in Grant County. “Elders in my family often spoke of climbing the Mississippi River bluffs each spring to pick bouquets of these shooting stars (many decades long past). I’m glad enough remain for “collection by photo,” she says.
Thanks to Rare Plant Monitoring Program volunteers like Roberta, we now have current information on hundreds more rare plant populations, many of them in State Natural Areas, and many which haven't been visited in decades. Even more exciting, volunteers discovered 22 new populations of rare plant species. We've added their locations to our Natural Heritage Inventory database so they can be protected and land managers alerted to their presence.