Scientists from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy published a note in a botanical journal detailing how they discovered a plant that had never been recorded in the state.

WPC Ecologists Christopher Tracey and Peter G. Woods recently wrote the piece for Rhodora, the journal of the New England Botanical Club. The article describes how they spotted a dwarf scouring rush, a plant species previously undocumented in Pennsylvania.

Tracey and Woods found the species after being led to the site by Mercyhurst Professor of Biology John J. Michael Campbell. Tracey and Woods were conducting field research for the Erie County Natural Heritage Inventory, an extensive catalogue of plants, animals and ecosystems, when they made the discovery.

Dwarf scouring rush is known to exist in northern U.S. states and in Canada, but the plant had not been identified in Pennsylvania until this discovery. WPC scientists found a small population of this low, wiry plant within a fen, a rare type of wetland, on the college property.

Members of the Horsetail family, scouring rushes are so named because the high silica content of these plants once made them useful for scrubbing pots. As “fern allies,” they are closely related to the ancient fern family and reproduce through spores. The scientific name of the dwarf scouring rush is Equisetum scirpoides.

The ecological note is available online.

(Reprinted From Water, Land, Life the Western PA Conservancy monthly online newsletter.)

2/4/2013