Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

 

Date of this Version

1-1998

Citation

Hildebrand, Terri. January 1998. 1997 Inventory for Spiranthes diluvialis Sheviak in Western Nebraska: A Final Report, Volume I. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. 47 pp.

Abstract

This study resulted from an agreement between Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NGPC) and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFW). After the 1996 discovery of Spiranthes diluvialis, in western Nebraska, NGPC was seeking to determine the extent of the Nebraska population. Information on the wet meadow community of orchid occurrence in Nebraska and eastern Wyoming was needed. This report includes descriptions of communities inventoried, Spiranthes diluvialis populations, and additional species monitored by Nebraska and Wyoming Natural Heritage programs.

The 1996 discovery of Spiranthes diluvialis in Nebraska by Hazlett merited the need for further inventory for the species in western Nebraska. Occurring in slightly alkaline, sub-irrigated wet meadows, potential habitat was identified on the Niobrara River and its tributaries, western Sandhills meadows, Lodgepole Creek, and Pumpkin Creek. Thirty-seven survey sites totaling 1720 hectares (4300 acres) were identified. Meadows were surveyed from mid-August to mid-September 1997. Additionally, early and mid-summer surveys of the known site yielded associated plant species information. Soil samples were collected and analyzed from twenty-eight Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana locations. Previously identified S. diluvialis sites in Wyoming were visited. Only one new population was located on property adjacent to the previously recorded Nebraska site. Three plant species previously not recorded for Nebraska, Pedicularis crenulate, Erigeron lonchophyllus, and Aster chilensis ssp. adscendens, were identified. In addition to Spiranthes diluvialis, and one species monitored by the Wyoming Natural Diversity database.

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