By Ethan Hatchett
Spring is an exciting time for flowers in Georgia. From the delicate, snow-white petals of bloodroot to the purple, multi-flowered American toadflax (link), the season is full of distinct blooms. Many of those involve unique flowers that are overlooked due to geography and scarcity.
The fringed campion (Silene polypetala) is one. Pink with delicate fibers hanging off the edge of the petals, when seen the blooms of this federally endangered species are hard to miss. The plant is found in Georgia’s upper Coastal Plain south to the Florida panhandle. It grows on moist slopes and small stream terraces in hardwood forests with low-acid soils.
Fringed campion in a Chattahoochee River drainage (DNR)
Fringed campion blooms from April to May. The plant’s rosette is evergreen but hard to identify without a flower. The campion reproduces by seed and vegetative growth.
Threats such as habitat loss from logging and clearing of mature hardwood forests, erosion of slopes, destruction by feral hogs and encroachment by invasive species have resulted in the species being protected under the Endangered Species Act. Fortunately, the fringed campion is also a high-priority species in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan.
This comprehensive conservation strategy, which is undergoing a periodic revision, lists 640 native animal and plant species as priorities for conserving statewide. The 150 conservation actions recommended in the plan focus restoration and protection efforts where they’re most needed and most effective.
DNR has teamed with other Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance partners, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State Botanical Garden of Georgia and Mercer University, to safeguard populations of fringed campion on privately owned timberlands in the Chattahoochee River basin. Here, tucked away in ravines too steep for logging are stands of regal, mature hardwood forest that provide exactly the habitat that fringed campion requires.
Partner-powered survey in 2023 (Jennifer Ceska/State Botanical Garden of Georgia)
Because of the inaccessibility of the area, no comprehensive plant surveys had been conducted since the late 1990s. But using paper maps made by botanists in 1998 for clues to fringed campion locations, new survey efforts in 2020 through 2023 turned up an encouraging find: What had been initially documented as four small disjunct occurrences was actually one large population interconnected across hundreds of acres of high-quality habitat.
Dr. Heather Bowman Cutway, a biology professor at Mercer in Macon, is leading the effort to safeguard this and other fringed campion populations. As part of DNR’s Recovery Challenge project, Bowman Cutway is growing rosettes collected from wild populations for research and genetic safeguarding, exploring what the species needs to thrive and produce seed. She is also providing Atlanta Botanical Garden seed and leaf material from plants she raised. The garden is studying the seeds’ germination potential and preserving the plants’ DNA for genetic research.
Mercer’s Heather Bowman Cutway, helping lead research key to conserving fringed campion (Special to DNR)
Of the initial 240 seeds Bowman Cutway provided, only 32 germinated, resulting in a roughly 13 percent germination rate. This is surprisingly low viability for seeds produced in cultivation, although the reasons why are not yet clear. Bowman Cutway plans to try collecting wild seed and will continue studying the pollination of fringed campion.
Preserving the plant’s genetic diversity is key to conserving the species. Fringed campion has evolved a method to avoid self-pollination, which means it’s likely that even large clusters of plants represent only a single genetic stock. This leaves the species more vulnerable to disease and environmental changes.
The fringed campion is one of spring’s most stunning flowers. But the plant’s uniqueness underscores its rarity, reminding us that if want spring to stay beautiful we have to help preserve it.
Ethan Hatchett is a communications assistant in DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section.