
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991                   TAG: 9102270215
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: NARROWS                                LENGTH: Medium

CONSERVANCY MAY BE SAVING A RARE PLANT

One of the world's rarest plants is found on a cliff overlooking the New River in Giles County. It may survive because of a recent land purchase by the Virginia chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

The conservancy, which is dedicated to the protection of ecologically significant land, has bought 322 Giles County acres on which four Peters Mountain mallow plants grow. They are the only plants of the species currently known to exist in the wild.

The plant was first discovered in 1927 by botanist Earl Core, from whom its gets its scientific name, lliamna corei. It is related to the hollyhock and okra okra, also members of the mallow family.

Peters Mountain mallow is a perennial that grows 4 to 5 feet tall. It has maple-like leaves and produces 15 to 20 rose or light-pink flowers during its flowering season.

At the time of its discovery, 50 plants were growing in soil-filled pockets and crevices on the Giles mountain. The Nature Conservancy - along with a team of state and federal agencies, including Virginia Tech - has been working to establish a viable population of the plants in the wild.

"The future of the Peters Mountain mallow looks looks promising," said Thomas Wieboldt, curator of Tech's herbarium. "We've had success growing plants in an experimental garden, and we've learned a lot about its biology," he said.

Virginia Tech is growing roughly 30 of the plants on its Blacksburg campus. But the researchers hope to regenerate the mallow in natural seedbeds they have found at the mountain site.

That effort may involve a controlled burning of a portion of the site because - as is the case with some other types of plants - fire aids the germination of the seeds. The seeds have a hard coat that is impervious to water, which is needed for germination, Wieboldt said. Fire helps breach the seed coat.

The Nature Conservancy will post the Giles property with signs designating it as a nature preserve. Fences have been built around the four remaining wild plants to protect them from browsing deer. Funds are needed to save the mallow in its natural environment, said George Fenwick, the conservancy's Virginia director. The preserve is critical to the recovery of the plant, he said.

The conservancy has over 580,000 members nationwide and owns and manages with the help of volunteers more than 1,600 natural areas, including the Falls Ridge and Bottom Creek Gorge preserves in Montgomery County.

by CNB