Discovered by chance: A plant lost to Vermont for a century is discovered in Addison County

Molly Parren had no intention of rediscovering a native plant that had been thought extinct in Vermont for more than a century. As a turtle technician with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, she simply set out to survey habitats in Addison County.

But when Parren sent a photo of rare wild garlic to Grace Glynn, a botanist in the department, she received an unexpected call. “You won’t believe what you’ve found by chance!” Glynn told Parren.

In the corner of the photo, a stem of a fake mermaid plant peeked out, or Floerkea proserpinacoides.

“I’ve never seen the plant in real life,” Glynn said in an interview. “But … I knew it right away.” The herb has been missing from Vermont since the early 20th century; until last week it was considered a “historic herb of the state.” Now experts want to make sure it stays here.

It is the latest in a series of plant “rediscoveries” in recent years. The small whorl pogonia and the purple crowberry are among the missing species recently discovered in the state.

“I think it speaks to this renewed interest in native plants,” Glynn said. “It takes a community to make all these rediscoveries possible, and that’s what we’re seeing.”

According to Art Gilman, a research botanist at the Pringle Herbarium at the University of Vermont, Floerkea is actually quite common in the rest of North America. “It is continentally distributed at about this latitude,” he explained.

However, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife, it has not been seen in Vermont since 1916. And, as Gilman pointed out, the plant “contributes a significant amount to our biodiversity as a member of a family that has no other representatives in the state.”

Still, he added, the plant is theoretically well suited to Vermont’s ecosystem as an early spring plant. “It’s one of those species that is adapted to the deciduous forest, which has a lot of light in the early spring,” he said.

According to Glynn, this is an important point.

“The bees that are just coming up,” she said, “and the flies – they really need these early plants because nothing else is blooming.” Floerkea is also tasty for humans, but little is known about its consumption by animals.

But that early, short bloom season also complicates Glynn’s job of finding the rest of Vermont’s false mermaid plant. “When the canopy closes, that’s pretty much done for this year,” Gilman said.

For botanists (professional and amateur) who wish to find more False Mermaid Plant this season, time is limited.

“In about a month,” Gilman said, “it will just dry up and be gone … until next spring.”

Without the landowners’ care for the area and their willingness to have it surveyed, even this population would have gone undetected. “I think one lesson here is that private land ownership and biodiversity conservation can go hand in hand with responsible stewardship,” Glynn said.

But she is not only grateful to the landowners. “I want to give credit to the plants,” she added. “They have held out all this time without any help.”

Experts will continue to study the newly discovered population, which is already larger than originally thought. Glynn said Thursday that they now know the population is located both upstream and downstream from the original site. (The agency has not disclosed the exact location.)

It’s important to have a good sense of the plant’s distribution and needs. “Ultimately,” she said, “we want to know how we can help this species thrive in Vermont in the future.”

“I think there’s something wonderful,” she mused, “about being humbled and reminded… how little we know.”

A new and updated list of rare plants will appear on the Fish and Wildlife Department website in the next few weeks.

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