Some call it Pumice Moonwort and others Grape Fern. For those who prefer Latin, it’s Botrychium Pumicola. Odds are you’ve never heard of it, and the chances are even greater that you have never seen it (and probably never will).
That said, Mt. Shasta area residents stand a much better chance than the rest of world, as the mountain is one of the only places on the globe that this rare plant is found; the only other location is the region between Crater Lake and Bend, Ore.
Though samples of the plant were taken by Mt. Shasta botanist William Bridge Cooke in 1941, there have been no confirmed sightings of Pumice Moonwort on Mt. Shasta until this past summer when a team of botanists from the US Forest Service’s Mt. Ranger District found specimens high on the windswept slopes of Shastina.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” said backcountry ranger Eric White, reflecting on both the story surrounding its recent discovery, as well its the plant’s history.
The plant’s discovery this past summer prompted the Shasta Trinity National Forest service to make a short documentary that chronicles the race to find it, called “A Botanical Mystery.”
In the film, the world’s leading expert on Botrychium, Donald Farrar of the University of Iowa, characterizes the recent discovery as extremely important.
Farrar traveled to the region this summer, along with botanist John Game and a team of botanists from UC Berkeley, in hopes of discovering the sought-after plant.
However, this group was too late, as the small team from the Mt. Shasta Ranger Station, led by Eric White and botanists Mellon Colberg, beat them to it.
“The discovery is an outstanding event,” said Farrar, adding that though Pumice Moonwort has now been confirmed on Mt. Shasta, speculation continues as to where the plant originated and its history as a species.
Clues from the past
The interest in Mt. Shasta Pumice Moonwort intensified in 2004 when Farrar confirmed Cooke’s original samples as being genuine, based on comparisons with Oregon samples.
In his records, Cooke noted that he had found his samples of Pumice Moonwort “in a basin near the spur on the south bank of Duller Canyon, west side of Shastina, near timberline at an elevation of 9,027 feet.”
In the past couple of years, local botanists as well as teams from outside of the area, most notably the UC Berkeley group, have made forays onto the mountain in search of the species.
Colberg was the first to sight the Pumice Moonwort on a trip that occurred just a few weeks prior to the arrival of Farrar and Game. Reflecting on the day that the plant was discovered, she said, “We spent the whole day meandering, focusing on associated species and color.”
She also noted that because of the plant’s small size (about 2 inches in height), locating it is no simple task.
‘Like a snow leopard’
White noted that finding the Pumice Moonwort on the mountain is like finding a snow leopard in the Himalayas. Both are extremely rare and both inspire the imagination, he noted.
“Rediscovering the population is significant and says something about wilderness,” added White, reflecting on the value of these federally protected areas. “They let nature run its course.”
Pumice Moonwort is just one of the rare species in the region, noted White, who, as a backcountry ranger, spends hundreds of days each year on the mountain.
White noted American marten, Northern goshawk, American pika, and peregrine falcons as some of the less common species that one might see.
“There are also unconfirmed wolverine sightings and badger holes on the mountain,” he added, reflecting on the fact that there are many other mysteries, botanical or otherwise, clinging to the slopes of the mountain.
Mount Shasta, Calif. —
