Listed Flowers

• Golden Paintbrush
  
  At the time of this writing, there are 716 flowering plants on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service listing of threatened and endangered species. Every section of the United States is affected, from deserts to forests.
  
  Some of the more recognizable plants listed:
  
  •Virginia round-leaf birch
  •Island barberry
  •Hawaiian bluegrass
  •Autumn buttercup
  •Colorado butterfly plant
  •Mesa Verde cactus
  •Star cactus
  •Monterey clover
  •Smooth coneflower
  •Lakeside daisy
  •Hawaiian gardenia
  •Clay's hibiscus
  •Yellow larkspur
  •Western lily
  •Scrub lupin
  •Stebbins' morning glory
  •Hinckley oak
  •Golden paintbrush
  •Chapman rhododendron
  •Virginia spiraea
  •Pecos sunflower
  
  An astonishing number of the plants listed are native to the island of Hawaii. The fragile tropical ecosystem there is in grave danger of losing some of its most beautiful and unique flora.
  
  

How Plants Become Endangered

• Reasons that flowering plants become endangered:
  
  •Loss of habitat
  •Chemical contamination
  •Competition from non-native invasive species
  •Overharvesting for commercial use
  •Specialization (e.g., only one pollinator, small native habitat)
  
  Most of these causes can be attributed to expansion of the human species.
  
  

Efforts to Preserve

• Conservation organizations have undertaken efforts to protect endangered plant species. Some fight habitat loss directly by purchasing areas of fragile habitat, or lobbying legislators to restrict access to endangered ecosystems. Environmental regulation and cleanup have been undertaken by government and nonprofit organizations worldwide in an attempt to minimize attrition from chemical and other man-made dangers. Many groups organize volunteer work gangs to weed invasive plants out of public lands. Legislation is also one of the primary ways that nonprofits attempt to halt the commercial harvesting of endangered plants.
  
  For flowers that are too specialized to survive, transplanting into monitored and controlled botanical gardens or labs are the only way to cultivate enough plants to ensure survival.
  
  

Preserving Beauty

• The nationwide list of endangered plants is daunting, to say nothing of the plethora of flowers worldwide that are fading from view. The best step a person can take is to read up on local endangered plants and to find the organizations in your area who are doing something to protect their habitat.
  
  Think of it as a grass roots contribution.
  
  

Planting Endangered Species

• Many states have some version of the nonprofit Native Plant Society, which collects and preserves state-native plants for sale and use in private plantings. Working with these organizations helps to ensure that you're not contributing to the problem by innocently planting an invasive non-native species in your own backyard.