Marin Chapter California Native Plant Society
[Marin CNPS Home Page]
"The Delphinium bakeri, Milo Baker's larkspur, named
after the professor that discovered the species, was once
known from
several sites in the California counties of
Marin and Sonoma.
Gradually population after population
has disappeared mainly due to
agricultural practices (it is
poisonous if eaten by livestock).
"The final known wild population was on a roadside
affecting
no-one's grazing animals. It is possible some local
rancher has a
secret patch of the plants that he doesn't
want any pesky Botanist to
discover-even though it is
entirely his to do what he likes if no-one
knows it's there,
or if he doesn't change the land-use.
"This population of the larkspur was only discovered in
1983 ;
it may have been there much longer but there are
quite a few
Delphinium species in the area and no-one else
but the herbarium
voucher collector noticed that it was
different from all the others.
Check the UC Berkeley
Jepson Herbarium Floristic Interchange website
for any
facts on who made the collection(s) and where and when.
The
new North American Flora indicates the plant is
already extinct in
the wild!
"Given its reduction to a single population, the plant has
been listed both Federal "Endangered" and California
"Rare." The Marin
County Dept of Public works has
EACH YEAR been informed of the
presence of the
Delphinium, red marks have been put on the road on
each
side of the population, red tags were put on the roadside
marker
there actually at the culvert, the resource ecologist
of MDPW was
shown the site just last year to make sure
she knew of the plant's
location. If they had to do road
maintenance, and it is true they did
have to reduce mudslide
debris on the Marshall- Petaluma road , they
had a phone
or e-mail contact that could have been used to get
someone
to salvage the plants without delay to save them for
re-establishment later.
"A researcher from UC Berkeley has, for the past 3 years, been
assessing the genetics of the
plants and, luckily as it turns out,
got permission to collect a limited amount of seed in 2004
before the
back-hoe action."
(text by Doreen L, Smith, rare plants coordinator, Marin Capter CNPS)
