Threatened and Endangered Plants
Water Howellia (Howelia aquatilis) – Threatened
Water howellia is an annual aquatic species in the bellflower family. This plant grows 4-24 inches high and has extensively branched, submerged or floating stems and narrow, linear, alternate leaves up to 2 inches in length. Water howellia usually flowers in May and June, with small trumpet-shaped blooms ranging from white to light purple in color, at or above the water surface. Water howellia reproduces only by seed which germinates when ponds dry during fall. It has very narrow habitat and moisture requirements which leaves it vulnerable to extirpation as a result of consecutive years of unfavorable growing conditions and land alterations.
Spalding’s Campion (Silene spaldingii) – Threatened
Spalding’s campion is a perennial forb with a simple or branched rootcrown. Stems are 8-24 inches tall with 4-7 pairs of opposite, sessile leaves that are about 2-3 inches lone below and gradually reduce in size upward. The leaves and stems are covered with long, sticky hairs. Spalding’s campion was once found throughout the Palouse prairie and canyon grasslands of the Pacific Northwest bunchgrass habitat type. In Montana, populations have been located in the intermountain valleys of Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, and Sanders counties. This plant is found in mesic Pacific bunchgrass prairie dominated by native perennial grasses at elevations between 1,500 and 5,100 feet.
Ute Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis) – Threatened
Ute ladies’-tresses is a perennial orchid with usually 1 stem that is 20-50cm tall and arising from tuberously thickened roots. The inflorescence consists of few to many white or ivory flowers clustered in a spike of 3-rank spirals at the top of the stem. Ute ladies’-tresses is known from only a handful of occurrences in southwest and south-central Montana. Alkaline wetlands, swales and old, meander channels often on the edge of the wetland or in areas that are dry by mid-summer. Habitat is limited to areas within major river drainages.
