Calystegia soldanella threatened

OSU is researching the threatened extinction of this beach morning glory:

Ammophila arenaria was introduced to the west coast of North
America in l868 to stabilize dunes in the San Francisco area.
The introduction came from Australia where it had been earlier
introduced from Europe. Because of its ability to thrive under
conditions of high wind and sand burial, the grass spread
rapidly, both by natural means and through its steadily increas-
ing use in sand stabilization projects.
A long-term result of this domination by a single, vigorous
species with 100% ground cover has been the suppression of many
of the numerous native, dune-building species: Elymus (Leymus)
mollis, Abronia latifolia, Covolvulus (Calystegia) soldanella,
Carex macrocephala, Glehnia leiocarpa, Lathyrus littoralis, Poa
macrantha, and others. None are immediately threatened with
extinction (except, perhaps, Abronia umbellata, at least in the
northwest) but they are much less seen than in former times.
Ammophila is also seen by some to be a long-term threat to the
scenic and recreational values of the extensive Oregon coastal
dune fields. This is debatable.

This is from the book: Plants from the Oregon coastal dunes.

On the foredune and other areas of active, blowing sand, the continued spread of European beach-grass (Ammophila arenaria) has resulted in the suppression of the native dune-building and stand-stabilizing species. While not generally threatened with extinction, many of these species, such as the yellow abronia (Abronia latifolia), gray beach pea (Lathyrus littoralis), beach morning-glory (Calystegia soldanella), American dune-grass (Elumus mollis)and large-headed sedge (Carex macrocephala) are no longer seen in the abundance of thirty years ago. One endangered species pink sandverbena (Abronia umbellata ssp. breviflora) which was once abundant along the coast from British Columbia to northern California is now restricted to a few sites from the central Oregon coast south. Since 1991 efforts have been underway by the Plant Conservation Biology Program of the Oregon Department of Agriculture to reintroduce this species to create new populations. Reintroduction has been most successful in sites where European Beach-grass has been brought under control.

I will be making the short trip over to the coast in May. If any of you live in coastal areas it might be a good idea if I send you some of these plants and try to re-stock them to prevent extinction. I don't know how well they transplant....but it's worth a try.
beth

The botanical info I have on this species.

The text that went along with the illustation.

Opps! Wrong page...see later post "Page2"

This message was edited Feb 8, 2007 12:41 PM

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I love the picture. That`s nice!

What a beautiful flower!

Nice species but I am not aware of Calystegia soldanella being rare. If you do decide to grow it in order to bloom you will need to grow it with little humus and in to keep it pot bound for it to bloom. It will form seed, Ron Ratko offered some years ago. Calystegia soldanella will form hybrids with Calystegia sepium or C. silvatica but nothing great.

This IS a beautiful species! I don't see any local beach glories quite as beautiful as this one! Very, very nice.

A bit of Calysteiga trivia for you is that plant associated with the Stuarts is the sea Bindweed . . . In 1745 Prince Charles Edward landed on the island of Eriskay, in Scotland and from his pocket he scattered seeds of Calystegia soldanella which he had gathered while waiting to embark from France. The seeds grew and seeded themselves in turn and are still to be found growing in this spot and nowhere else in the Hebrides :)

I don't know if I should be pleased with myself knowing all this calystegia trivia or....err scared!