Флорида Торреясы: Тарихы мен сипаттамасы

Species of plant

Torreya taxifolia, commonly known as Florida torreya or stinking cedar, but also sometimes as Florida nutmeg or gopher wood, is an endangered subcanopy tree of the yew family, Taxaceae. It is native to only a small glacial refugium in the southeastern United States, at the state border region of northern Florida and southwestern Georgia.

In 1821 colonial control of the Florida Territory shifted from Spain to the United States. Plantation owners and their slaves began to move into the territory, exacerbating conflicts with the native peoples and the existing population of runaway slaves. One such plantation owner was the patriarch of the Croom family, who in 1826 purchased land around the town of Tallahassee. When he died in 1829, his two sons inherited and invested further in the region, buying up or leasing other plantations. One of the two sons was Hardy Bryan Croom. Croom had studied law and became a state senator in North Carolina in his early thirties, but he also devoted time to exploring the sciences. Among other scientific interests, In 1834 Croom initiated correspondence with the botanist John Torrey. Torrey carried forward studies of the species that would eventually carry his name after the tragic death at sea not only of Croom but also of his wife and children. Their shipwreck occurred during a hurricane in 1837, off the coast of North Carolina. Arnott commemorated Torrey in the generic epithet. The etymology of the specific epithet is from Latin taxus, meaning 'yew', and folium, meaning 'leaf': i. e., 'yew leaved'. Other species of Torreya have longer, less yew like leaves, but this is not the reason that it was given this name, as the other species were described after this one. In 1891 Edward Lee Greene validated Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Schmaltz's generic epithet Tumion and erroneously moved this species there as Tumion taxifolium. Torreya taxifolia is the type species of the genus Torreya, owing to the timing of its entering herbaria used in western science. The genus has far greater representation in east Asia and also in the mountains of California (Torreya californica) than in its relictual range in Florida. Family level classification has been controversial, but with genetic analysis it is generally placed in the yew family, Taxaceae. Its closest relative within the yew family is genus Amentotaxus. The genus Cephalotaxus also used to be considered a close relative, but it is now classified within an entirely different family, Cupressaceae. Vegetative structure among Torreya species is very similar, as seen in the image above. All samples were taken and photographed onsite at Cox Arboretum in Georgia (US). All were young saplings growing in similar light and soil conditions. Florida yew, Taxus floridana, is easily distinguished from Florida torreya by touch: while both genera have pointed leaf tips, the yew tip is soft while torreya is so hardened it easily punctures skin.

When the original recovery plan for Torreya taxifolia was produced in 1986, it was known that this species had attracted horticultural plantings over many decades — not only in Florida, but also in states outside of the historically native range. A number of such sites are listed on page 7 of the plan. Maclay State Gardens in Tallahassee, Florida, was listed as being "severely affected" by pathogens. But two horticultural sites in Georgia (Columbus and Fort Gaines) and three sites in North Carolina (Highlands, Asheville, and Norlina) "appear to be in good health." (It can be accessed via the main listing page of Torreya taxifolia as the link titled "View implementation progress.") As of July 2022, both of the above actions are listed. Action 51 "Inventory plantings at botanical gardens" is listed as "not started." Action 52 "Supplement existing plantings" is listed as "unknown." A total of 14 horticultural plantings in the United States are grouped into three categories: Naturalized groves (offspring onsite), Mature trees producing seeds, and Mature trees not producing seeds. The group has documented through photo essays and videos a total of 5 groves in North Carolina, 2 groves apiece in Pennsylvania and Ohio and just a single grove (or tree) in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Oregon. — via rooted branchlets planted next to one another in South Carolina. into an online document. As of 2022, the document is 27 pages. It includes many more sites than shown on the map because entries also entail international sites, commercial nurseries that have sold this species (as early as the 1800s), and sites in which torreya plantings have either died or been removed for other purposes. Documentation of "historic groves in northward states" was presented as "Accomplishment 1" by the group Torreya Guardians in a "Petition to Downlist from endangered to threatened Torreya taxifolia" that Connie Barlow filed as an individual September 2019. with no change in species status of imperilment. But Factor E of the decision, "Documentation of Historical Groves," did acknowledge the citizen accomplishments in this regard:<blockquote>

"The petition provides and cites credible information to corroborate the claim that recent and historical outplantings of Florida torreya have been documented at localities outside of the native range of the species. The petition claims that the documentation of the species’ ability to survive and reproduce in the Southern Appalachians could be considered the completion of Action Item 5 of the species 1986 Recovery Plan, which states the need to 'establish experimental collections of torreya outside of its native habitat.' However, the petition further explains that the majority of the documented outplantings are not in locations that would 'give rise to new and expanding populations'. Ultimately, the relative reproductive success of the outplanted groves do not ameliorate the threats currently affecting the species in its native range (i. e. low population number, rarity of habitat, and disease, USFWS 2010)." They began experimental plantings in the Appalachian Mountains and northward by obtaining donations of seeds from the owners of horticultural plantings in North Carolina. Media and academic publications have both reported on the unusual character and progress of this citizen form of species recovery.

Assisted migration of an imperiled plant is possible only if there are mature trees that produce ample numbers of seeds. Equally, assisted migration can only happen if the managers of those sites allow seeds to be distributed for such purpose. The controversy that emerged about management of Torreya taxifolia seeds is of two types:<blockquote>
1. The official ex situ groves in northern Georgia that were safeguarding wild genetics were being managed by two botanical gardens in ways that eventually resulted in large numbers of seeds remaining uncollected. 2. Citizens were using legally accessed seeds for northward plantings outside of any established policy framework and without officially sanctioned oversight. The sequence of photos below show their progress in safeguarding Torreya taxifolia 16 years after branchlets were harvested in the wild. When the original branchlets that had been cut and rooted in 1991 reached an age in which seed production ensued, safeguarding decisions became more problematic — and potentially controversial. This is because Torreya seeds are recalcitrant; they cannot be stored in the usual ways. They cannot be dried, they cannot be frozen, they cannot be freeze dried. They can be stored in a refrigerator for a few years, especially because the species requires cold "stratification." But the embryos will die if they are not eventually placed into soil and seasonal warmth that will induce germination. As of October 2011, "about 25 embryogenic cultures from five mother trees were placed into liquid nitrogen for long term storage and confirmed to survive after retrieval from liquid nitrogen." The 2010 recovery plan update reported seed production at Smithgall Woods in this way, "The trees have grown quite large and are now reproductively mature producing male and female cones annually." The founder of Torreya Guardians, Connie Barlow, utilized the U. S. Freedom of Information Act to seek information. In her FOIA submission, Barlow wrote:"The Fish & Wildlife Service has not yet posted anything in its ongoing reports database as to the actual quantities of endangered Torreya taxifolia seeds produced year by year from ex situ plantings in Smithgall Woods and Blairsville GA, since those trees began producing seeds. It is important for the public to know the success of seed production, year by year, and especially the final destinations of those precious seeds, as produced under the terms of the 2010 update of the ESA recovery plan for this endangered species. My concern is that the seeds at Smithgall Woods may have been unharvested, and therefore 'wasted' as food for local squirrels." A later communication by Barlow to the agency explained the events that motivated her request:"In the past I was willing to 'live and let live' with this aspect of the implementation of the ESA designation and not seek further information. Nor did I attempt to advocate that seeds of such an endangered tree should not be wasted on squirrels. But when it became clear that a person associated with Torreya Guardians was being accused of wrong doing, and that he was also being blamed by Ms. Radcliffe for not notifying official staff until 2016 that seeds were being produced at the official ex situ location, I realized that the hostility of officials toward our citizen group was no longer tolerable. Hence my FOIA request." Barlow also references a formal document signed in May 2016 that she learned about only during the 2018 email exchanges with botanical garden staff. The document had been sent to all institutional members of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance (GPCA), and it was signed by six members, including staff from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Georgia Department of Natural Resources.]] Citizen collection and use of endangered plant seeds produced in horticultural settings are exempt from restrictions in the U. S. Endangered Species Act. In the case of Florida torreya, the 65 year old grove at Biltmore Gardens near Asheville, North Carolina, produced enough seeds in 2005 such that the managers donated 110 seeds to a newly formed citizen group. Donations to Torreya Guardians culminated in 2009, when the group received 300 Biltmore seeds. The controversy accelerated in 2008 when Audubon Magazine sent a journalist and a photographer to document the group's planting of 31 potted seedlings into private forested lands near Waynesville, North Carolina. Orion (2008), Audubon (2010), Landscape Architecture (2014), Examples that included mention of the Torreya taxifolia controversy were: Conservation Biology (2007, 2010, 2020), Trends in Ecology and Evolution (2009), Nature Climate Change (2008), Nature (2011, 2017), Ecological Applications (2010), BioScience (2012), Yale Journal on Regulation (2010), Forestry Chronicle (2011), Conservation Letters (2010, 2013, 2017), The Conversation (2021). Access to seeds numbering in the thousands enabled the group to begin experimenting with the easiest planting style of all: putting seeds one by one directly into their ultimate destinations, beneath a deciduous forest canopy. This "free planting" technique began with many failures before squirrel proof approaches were discovered: plant each seed under a rock or no less than 4 inches deep. Even if seed predation was mostly deterred, young seedlings were vulnerable to herbivore browsing. Planting next to evergreen Polystichum ferns was found to offer a degree of safety by way of camouflage. Even with the best techniques, losses were large in most locations. But there was no way other than free planting to put batches of seeds numbering in the thousands fully to use. One site with remarkable results was located in Florida, so it was not part of poleward assisted migration experimentation. Nevertheless, the joy and success of the volunteer planters at this site attracted media attention. Shoal Sanctuary, located near Mossy Head, Florida, is about 80 miles west of the historically native range of torreya, but this was too far away to qualify for donation of seeds from any of the official ex situ seed production sites. So in 2015 Torreya Guardians donated seeds for the owners' new project, which was unusual in that Chris and Robert Larson recruited local scout and church children to do the planting. The controversy about the unregulated nature of northward plantings of Torreya taxifolia seeds by citizens had been noted, watched, and commented upon for years in the broad context of how endangered plants should be managed, whether climate adaptation might become a compelling reason to make assisted migration a recommended strategy, and what the nature of the guidelines should be. Meanwhile, the personal animosities festered, manifesting in official documentation in the 2020 recovery plan update in two ways. In the 2010 plan update, two Torreya Guardians were listed in the acknowledgments as participants in the "Recovery Working Group" and the plan itself suggested to "foster a working partnership" with the group.