Fragrant popcornflower (Plagiobothrys figuratus) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4

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Distribution

Global range

Fragrant popcornflower is native to northwestern North America where it ranges from southern Vancouver Island south to the west of the Cascades through the Puget Trough and Willamette Valley to southwestern Oregon. It extends eastward into the Columbia River Gorge to Klickitat County, WA(Oregon Natural Heritage Program 2002, NatureServe 2005). It is also known from southeastern Alaska where, according to Hulten (1976), it is introduced at Mendenhall on the Alaska Panhandle (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Approximate global range of fragrant popcornflower (P. figuratus ssp figuratus). Solid black regions indicate native range; triangles indicate states where it is believed to be introduced. Subspecies corallicarpus occurs only within a small area of southwestern Oregon overlapping the range of the widespread ssp. figuratus.

Fragrant popcornflower also occurs as an introduced species in Arkansas (Smith, 1994), Illinois (St. Clair Co.; Mohlenbrook 1975); North Carolina (Durham and Orange Cos.; Radford et al. 1968), and Michigan (NatureServe 2005).

Canadian range

In Canada, fragrant popcornflower is restricted to the southeastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (Douglas et al. 2002; B.C. CDC HERB database 2005) (Fig. 3). It was first collected near Victoria by Fletcher in 1885, and in Nanaimo soon after (in 1887) by J. Macoun. Between 1885 and 1986, the species was recorded a total of 12 times from a minimum of seven independent locations (Table 1). However, the precise number of localities, or the degree of connectivity between them, cannot be gleaned with certainty from the limited information that is available from collection notes.

Figure 3. Canadian range of fragrant popcornflower. Star indicates extant population; triangles represent historical occurrences.

Prior to 2005, the last known observation of fragrant popcornflower in Canada was made at Whaling Bay Station on Hornby Island in 1986 (R. Martin, pers. comm. 2006); all other records predate 1977, and most predate 1940 (Table 1). In June 2002, an intensive search of Whaling Bay Station by the writers was unsuccessful, leading to the conclusion that this species had probably been extirpated from Canada. However, in 2005, a single flowering plant was observed by R. Martin (A. Ceska, pers. comm. 2005), but in 2006, no plants were observed at this site (R. Martin, pers. comm. 2006).

Based on historical records, fragrant popcornflower once had an Extent of Occurrence (EO) in Canada of approximately 1600 km². This value is based on roughly the area of the acute triangle formed by Victoria, Hornby Island, and Comox. However, its current confirmed EO of the single extant population is much less than 1 km². The actual area of habitat once covered by the species is unknown but is now about 1 m². Its official Area of Occupancy, based on a 1x1 km grid, is 1 km².