north american native orchid journal - at The Culture Sheet

Pelchat: SPIRANTHES PARKSII CORRELL – NAVASOTA LADIES’-TRESSES
known to occur. However, endemic species of other plants are not
infrequent. Very possibly Spiranthes parksii represents an aberrant or
polyploid form of var. gracilis, or a non-persisting hybrid of var. gracilis and
S. cernua." (Luer 1975) Nevertheless, S. parksii Correll was listed
as endemic to Brazos County, Texas, (Correll 1950) and (Correll
& Johnston 1970). In 1975 it was listed as an Endangered and
Threatened Orchid of the United States, (Ayensu 1975). And, in
1982, it was listed as federally endangered (MacRoberts &
MacRoberts 1997). Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s it has had
a tendency to become newsworthy such as when it stopped the
expansionof Texas highway 6 in 1983, (Liggio 1999), or when it
became the focus of a conservation effort in 1990 that involved
the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and the San Antonio Botanical
Gardens, when 500 plants were reproduced for planting back into
the wild, (Houston Chronicle 1990).
Rediscovery
On October 25 th , 1978 the Navasota ladies'-tresses was
rediscovered in Brazos county by Paul Catling and K. L.
McIntosh in a Post Oak woodland northwest of the town of
Navasota (Catling and McIntosh 1979). They located 7 plants
along the banks of a temporary stream surrounded by scattered
oaks (post oak, Quercas stellata and blackjack oak, Quercas
marilandica) along with American beauty berry, Callicarpa americana.
Another site with 13 plants was also discovered close by in an
open oak woodland on the banks of another temporary stream.
They reported that Spiranthes parksii occurred both on the tops of
banks in open sand with a sparse cover of grass and on the sides
of banks in the shade of tress and thickets. Since that time it has
been documented in Lee, Leon, Freestone, Grimes, Burleson,
Madison, Robertson, Fayette, Washington and Jasper counties,
(Liggio 1999) and (Bridges and Orzell 1989). The Jasper county
site represents a small disjunct population within the Piney Woods
of Angelina County National Forest in East Texas 170 kilometers
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