Summary of Populations:

Autauga County 

This population represents a potential new county record. Even though the plants key out to QUBO, the authors are reluctant to make a definitive ID without genetic analysis of the plants in question. The morphology overlaps with other species/hybrids. 

Viability: Poor 

Threats: genetic swamping by Q. margarettae 

Verified census number: 7 

Verified Census status: Needs Work 

Chilton County 

Efforts to contact the landowners, managers, listing real estate agents, etc. have all been unsuccessful. 

Viability: Strong 

Threats: unknown 

Verified census number:0 

Verified Census status: Uninitiated 

Shelby County 

The sites visited in Shelby County were among the most encouraging of this effort. Three separate occurrences had been observed on a 10-mile stretch of Oak Mountain, with two of them already protected within Oak Mountain State Park. After miles of backcountry hiking, crisscrossing up and down slope in many places we were able to establish that these were actually subpopulations within what is now the largest single EO for the species. A large cluster at the south end of the park received a full detailed census. 

Viability: Strong 

Threats: Fire suppression & development of privately owned parcels 

Verified census number: 285 

Verified Census status: Satisfactory 

Jefferson County 

The extent of historical populations in Jefferson County will never be known. These are the most affected by habitat loss and alteration across the range of the species. There is a possibility of continued discovery of remnants of populations. 

Viability: Poor 

Threats: Habitat loss, habitat degradation, fragmentation, invasive species competition 

Verified census number: 58 

Verified Census status: Satisfactory 

St. Clair County 

There are multiple areas in St. Clair County with suitable habitat for QUBO. Arrangements to access private properties have been a challenge, but some promising connections have been made. 

Viability: Good 

Threats: Habitat degradation, changes in land use, lack of protected EOs 

Verified census number: 54 

Verified Census status: Needs work 

Blount County 

This was the most surprising population encountered on this trip, as an outlier in the species range, we did not expect to find more QUBO than we could count and large specimens with heavy fruit set. More time needs to be spent exploring the area for other subpopulations. More QUBO have already been observed at other nearby locations since our visit. This population is unique in that most plants occur on exposed rock on ridgetops, while these are widely distributed through woods, on and between boulders and even right down to the scour zone of the river. 

Viability: Strong 

Threats: Invasive species pressure 

Verified census number: 64 

Verified Census status: Needs Work 

Etowah County 

The population on Forever Wild’s Hinds Road Outcrop tract is large and will yield strong census numbers once funding is secured to conduct the work. The site is unfortunately subject to numerous pressures. Neighboring properties are also known to have subpopulations of QUBO worth investigating, and landowners are amiable to the proposal. Multiple threats need to be dealt with to ensure the longevity of QUBO at the site. Hundreds of labor hours need to be invested in the effort. 

Viability: Strong 

Threats: Encroaching invasive plant species, standing dead timber, and excessive fuel loads 

Verified census number:25 

Verified census status: Needs Work 

Figure 17: Pines killed by drought are an issue at the Hinds Road Rock Outcrop Population. 

Plant Materials Collected 

The collection trips completed covered the known range of the species in six Alabama counties (Autauga, Blount, Etowah, Jefferson, Shelby, and St. Clair). They resulted in the collection of 667 acorns from 17 maternal lines from three populations at four locations. Two scouted locations had zero acorns, another only 18 observed, another had only 10. No collecting was done at these four sites per Center for Plant Conservation guidelines aimed at preventing exploitation of the wild populations. 135 acorns, 8 from 16 maternal lines, and 7 from the 17th, were planted in October for the HBG safeguarding collection. The AU Davis Arboretum planted 120 acorns, 24 from 5 maternal lines. The remaining acorns have been shipped to partner institutions to be maintained as indexed material in a metacollection that can provide propagules in case of localized extirpation. Herbarium vouchers were also collected from each individual from which acorns were collected, as well as at new sites documented for the species. 

Distribution  

Partner organizations receiving acorns include Auburn University Davis Arboretum, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, The Morton Arboretum, Birmingham Botanical Garden, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Athens State University, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Alabama Cooperative Extension, USDA Agricultural Research Station, and Longleaf Botanical Gardens. 

Shipping occurred via USPS between October 15-28th, 2020. Due to a large distribution network, most institutions received only a subset of the germplasm collected during this project. Each institution was shipped a disbursement of 20-120 acorns (See Table 1). 

Table 1: QUBO acorn distribution record by county of collection for the 2020 Tree Gene Conservation Partnership Grant. 

The vouchers were mailed dried and unmounted, one set sent to the US National Arboretum Herbarium and one set to the Alabama Natural Heritage Section Herbarium (ALNHS, Index Herbarium) in Montgomery, AL. 

Project Accomplishments 

The Funding for this work allowed for an unprecedented evaluation of this species. The data set is clear and detailed allowing for continuation of the work that can illuminate some of the many remaining questions about the natural history of the species. The work included mapping of multiple potential presumed hybrids, a potential new county record (Autauga), new occurrences in Jefferson, Shelby, and St. Clair counties, and fantastic resolution on what is now the largest documented population of the species on Double Oak Mountain. This population was identified by backcountry hiking that established the connection between two known occurrences on Double Oak Mountain in Shelby county AL. Due to the large number of plants encountered and distance to trek, these trees were mapped, but detailed census data was not collected on the 115 individuals documented along this back country trek. 

A new EO for Jefferson County was recognized by arborist and APCA collaborator Zac Napier. When the QUBO team arrived to document it, there was a bonus discovery of ten large Q. georgiana. It is only the second EO for this species in Jefferson county, the third in a cluster that is disjunct, and marks the most western occurrence for the species. In addition to this discovery, several new EOs for the rare Georgia 

Aster, Symphyotrichum georgianum, were discovered, mostly by Auburn student and Davis Arboretum employee, Noah Yawn, while the team was in the field. 

Detailed Census and Mapping 

Taking into account observations on wild populations, it appears that preliminary numbers of this taxon are under reported. A full census of the Belcher Tract in Shelby County and Hinds Rock population in Etowah County would be valuable for enhancing collective understanding of the current state of imperilment for the species. 

In situ knowledge of species before this work consisted of 3 elemental occurrences reported by the Alabama Natural Heritage Program’s (ANHP) database, and an estimated world population of 100 individuals reported by NatureServe. The Morton Arboretum’s Gap Analysis database provided the most up to date record with 9 elemental occurrences. After the data from this project was reported to the ANHP, they now have records for 14 EOs and 34 new subpopulations within those EOs (Figure 41 in Appendix II). This is not because the ANHP botanist was unaware of the occurrences, it is because there is only one botanist responsible for reporting data in a state with more than 4,000 species of plants. If he worked 7 days a week for 10 years straight, he could spend 1 day on each species of plants. This points to how valuable grant opportunities like the Tree Gene Partnership are until plant conservation in AL receives the resources it needs to meet the demand presented by the fantastic biodiversity present in this state. An important future direction is creating more positions for field botanists in multiple institutions statewide. As of this writing, QUBO still deserves its S1G1 conservation status based on both the total population and known number of occurrences. 

Table 2: Summary of 2020 census of QUBO populations. 

 Grand Totals as of Fall 2020 = 496

Table 3: Specimen count summary comparison for ex situ holdings of QUBO with source information in 2019 (left) reported by the Global Conservation Consortium for Oak Gap Analysis database (A. Byrne pers. comm.) and ex situ holdings of QUBO with source information after 2020 collections (right). Follow up reports from partner institutions were a condition of receiving acorns collected for this project, allowing tracking of survival rates and term of success for these efforts. 

Exploration 

Publicity surrounding these efforts was generated through social media, meetings of the Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance, and years of networking and field work leading up to this grant. The result of this continues to have ripple effects as more reports of possible sites continue to come in. Unfortunately, only one the new elemental occurrences yielded acorn collections this season.