More than a decade after the last Quercus tardifolia tree was thought to have died, researchers have discovered a 30-ft. tall living specimen hiding in Texas’ Big Bend National Park.
However, the tree – also known as Chisos Mountains oak or lateleaf oak – was found in poor condition. According to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., its trunk was scarred by fire, there were signs that it had a fungal infection and it needs “immediate” conservation.
“This work is crucial to preserve the biodiversity that Earth is so quickly losing,” said Murphy Westwood, vice president of science and conservation at The Morton Arboretum. “If we ignore the decline of Q. tardifolia and other rare, endangered trees, we could see countless domino effects with the loss of other living entities in the ecosystems supported by those trees,” she said.
Scientists from the arboretum are part of a coalition of more than 10 institutions that discovered the rare oak that includes the San Antonio Arboretum in Texas. After being first described in the late 1930s, the last Chisos Mountain Oak was thought to have died in 2011.
In Late May, researchers found the secret specimen in what the Morton Arboretum described as a “dire scene.”
Westwood said the tree is considered one of the rarest oaks in the world. So far, it is unclear if scientists will be able to save it, as drought and fires could end its life.
Since finding the oak, scientists began working with the National Park Service “to reduce the immediate wildfire threat to the tree,” said the arboretum. Conservationists have also started a search for acorns so they might breed a new tree from the parent plant, a process called propagation.
“Oaks are exceptional among tree species in that their acorns cannot be traditionally seed banked for conservation purposes,” the arboretum explained. Researchers were concerned when they realizd that the recently discovered Q. tardifolia tree is not producing acorns.
Scientists are also conducting a genetic analysis of the tree.
“This is important, collaborative research necessary for the conservation of Q. tardifolia,” said Carolyn Whiting, a botanist at Big Bend National Park of the work regarding this tree. “The Chisos Mountains support a high diversity of oak species, partly because of the wide range of habitats available in this ‘sky island.’ There is still much to learn about the oaks in the Chisos.”
Oaks around the planet clean air, filter water sequester carbon dioxide and support other life forms, Westwood added.
“When one is lost, we don’t know what else we might permanently lose in its wake,” she said.
Wesley Knapp, chief botanist at NatureServe who participated in the expedition said that the tree is in some ways “an ancient relic,” since the environment is so different today that when it first started growing.
“It is incumbent upon us to learn from it and protect it while we still can in order to inform future conservation efforts,” he said.
“Nature rarely hands us a second chance, and I doubt we’ll get a third. We won’t waste it.”
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