Scientists have identified more than 100 plants in our county facing possible extinction, from the insect-devouring Northern Pitcherplant to the fragrant pink-and-blue flowered Swamp Pink and the aquatic Big Floatingheart, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

A “List of Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species of  Dorchester County,” covering animals and plants, includes many rushes, grasses and sedges, along with wildflowers. Researchers compiled lists of plants and animals most in need of conservation for every county in Maryland. The latest information for Dorchester, which lists 141 plants, dates from November and can be found at the DNR website.

Rather than filing the information away in our brains as yet another depressing development, along with Russia's invasion of  Ukraine and the possibility that a new variant of the deadly Covid-19 virus could rev up the waning pandemic, we gardeners can take action to help these delicate beauties of nature.

As crocuses and snowdrops reappear in our gardens, heralding the return of spring, we can keep our eyes peeled for rare, threatened and endangered plants as they emerge, avoid stepping on them and never dig them up from their home sites.

Importantly, you can “take an active part in conserving Maryland's rare species” by contacting the DNR Wildlife and Heritage Service, should you find any of these plants. The Service seeks information such as their exact location, a photo, habitat description and any pollinators observed visiting them. A “Rare Plant Reporting Form” can be found at dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/pages/plants_wildlife/rte_reportinginst.aspx.

Some of these species can be purchased at nurseries specializing in native plants, like the Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, and planted in a woodland corner of ones own yard. Many of them tolerate all sorts of soil and some will establish colonies and self-seed. Many are perennials, which means less work for the gardener.

Propagating even a few of the rare plants, photos of which can be found easily online, might help pull them back from the brink of extinction.

What caused these plants to all but disappear from our woods, marshes and other land? And what is the difference between endangered and threatened?  

Take the Swamp Pink, whose dark green leaves form an evergreen rosette close to the ground and, in spring, produce a flowering stalk that can grow more than three feet tall, topped by a one- to three-inch long cluster of 30 to 50 small, fragrant, pink flowers dotted with pale blue anthers. (Anthers are the part of the stamen that contains pollen.)

The major threat to the species, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, is “loss and degradation of its wetland habitat due to encroaching development, sedimentation, pollution...” and “plant collection and trampling.” Again, never dig up such plants from the wild and watch where you walk.

The Swamp Pink also has “an extremely low seedling establishment,” meaning that if its seeds germinate, they don't often grow into seedlings.

For readers who, like me, have a fuzzy notion of the distinction between threatened and endangered, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines endangered species as “those plants and animals that have become so rare they are in danger of becoming extinct” – in other words, gone forever.

Threatened species are slightly less rare, but still in a dicey situation as regards survival. The EPA defines them as “plants and animals that are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all, or a significant portion, of their ranges.”

Another interesting species hanging in the balance in our county is an aquatic, water lily-like plant with ornamental blossom from May through September: Big Floatingheart. It can live in a pond or a bog, likes part shade, and produces floating heart-shaped leaves on long stalks, with a flat topped cluster of small white flowers.

Unlike the single flowered, many petaled water lilies, Big Floatingheart's blossoms have just five petals each. Little Floatingheart also appears on the list of Dorchester's vulnerable plants.

Common wintergreen, also on the list, will probably ring a bell for most readers because its flavor and aroma are often used in candy, chewing gum and toothpaste. The wintergreen flavor in commercial products, however, is usually made synthetically or distilled from the bark and twigs of sweet birch (betula lenta), which strangely contains the same natural oil found in wintergreen, according to the pioneering wild foodie, forager and author of the 1960s and 1970s, Euell Gibbons. 

A so-called creeping perennial, with glossy green aromatic leaves, wintergreen makes an attractive ground cover, particularly in winter when it produces bright red berries. Its pinkish white flowers, which rise above the leaves, are lovely as well, and it likes acidic soil.

In “Stalking the Healthful Herbs,” Euell Gibbons writes that the plant goes by many other names, including partidgeberry, checkerberry, boxberry, ground holly and woodsman's tea.

Some other plants with charming names on the list include Shining Ladies'-Tresses, a species of wild orchid, catchfly cutgrass, Fringed Yellow-Eyed Grass and Fly Poison, to name a few.

A plant with particularly pretty flowers is Rose Coreopsis, also known as Pink Tickseed. The website of Mt. Cuba Center, which sells it, says the plant's “lavender-pink flowers with sunny yellow centers nestle on top of finely divided foliage.”

Rose coreopsis' blossom, which appears in mid- to late summer, attracts bees and butterflies and makes good cut flowers, the center adds. Trimming the plant back in late summer will encourage it to re-bloom. It's not fussy about soil and may spread and naturalize by way of rhizomes and self-seeding.

While waiting for full-blown spring to arrive, along with the many gardener's chores it brings, take a look at the list and pictures of the plants on it and consider how you might help them to thrive.

In the meantime, happy gardening!

Editor's note: Laetitia Sands is a master gardener in Dorchester County.