It’s a find that’s left a team of researchers thrilled. After a decade of searching, they’ve rediscovered a plant which was feared extinct, because it was last seen in the Channel Islands more than a half century ago.
"The excitement was through the roof, because this was our tenth year of looking for these plants, and a whole suite of others," said John Knapp, who is The Nature Conservancy's Senior Scientist.
"To finally find one...it's been nine years of getting zeros," he exclaimed.
He was part of a team of researchers looking for a plant known as Saints' Daisy on Santa Cruz Island. It included scientists from The Nature Conservancy, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and the San Diego Zoo.
"Its a perennial plant. It grows maybe a foot tall," said Knapp. "It has long, linear leaves, kind of like a surfboard. The flowers are yellow in the center, and purple on the outside. It's in the sunflower family. It looks like a daisy, but like a beautiful one."
Knapp says the last sighting of the Saints Daisy on the island was in the mid-1960’s, by a Santa Barbara Botanic Garden botanist.
"Since then, it hasn't been seen," said Knapp.
On April 8, Knapp and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Rare Plant Field Program Manager Sean Carson were on the plant expedition in Santa Cruz Island’s backcountry.
Remembering where he read the plants were found in 1965, Carson felt like they might be on the right track.
"If this plant is here, this is where it's going to be," thought Carson. "Stumbling up this steep cliff, ducking under branches, and crawling through chaparral, I just had this great feeling. Lo and behold, I peek up above the hill, and see these dark green lime leaves, and I knew it instantly."
Carson said it was a tiny, approximately five foot by five foot patch of the plants.
He said the search was in the right place, at the right time of year. "We might not have seen it, it might not have come above ground yet, so it was really unique we were surveying at this time," said Carson.
The Saints’ Daisy is found onshore in parts of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. There’s a tiny colony near Lompoc. But, the researchers say the find is a sign of something much more significant than just the rediscovery of one type of rare plant.
The introduction of livestock like sheep and pigs to the Channel Islands in the 1800’s ravaged native plants. There’s been a major effort in recent decades to restore the islands, removing non-native animals and rehabilitating damaged habitat. Carson said this is the latest in a series of animal and plant recoveries which show those efforts are working.
"This is really important because it shows the island is making a recovery," said Carson.
The researchers have also found a black oak tree, which was also feared to be extinct on the island.
Knapp said they are now working to collect seeds, and perhaps do transplants to help expand the small colony of the plants
The researchers said while they rediscovered the rare plants in the woods, they are by no mean out of the woods, and they will do what they can to save them from extinction. But, finding them is another hopeful sign.
Efforts to save two other rare plants in the islands went so well that last year, they were taken off the endangered list.
