White Meconella (Meconella oregana)

Resources

Status

  • BC: Red – S1S2 (2019)
  • COSEWIC: Endangered
  • SARA: Endangered (2006)
  • Global: Imperiled (2020)
  • Galiano Island Status: Historical Sightings

Description

White meconella is a small annual plant with pale bluish green/white flowers. Resembling the California poppy, it grows to 16 cm and blooms usually in March to early April.

Habitat

White meconella grows at low elevations on the specialized habitat of open south-facing rocky or grassy slopes on extremely shallow soils over bedrock with slight early-season seepage.

Range

The Canadian range is small and contained within the limits of Garry oak ecosystems, with an outlying population in Port Alberni; there are currently only 6 extant populations out of 15 that were originally identified. In the United States this plant is found in scattered locations in Washington, Oregon and California.

Threats

Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) and other invasive species play a dominant role in the degradation of this species habitat, while urban development destroys the habitat entirely.

Galiano Status

A population was documented on Mount Sutil as recently as 1980, but has not been seen since.  This species was the subject of a promising but ultimately unsuccessful re-introduction attempt by the Galiano Conservancy in 2013-2014 on Mount Sutil, and may be considered for future re-introduction efforts.

Photo Credit

Jason Straka

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