OCR Text |
Show Ute ladies' orchid endangered RICHFIELD A wild orchid called the Ute ladies -tresses received threatened species status when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added it to its list of plants protected by the Endangered Species Act This plant is tall, perennial terrestrial orchid, grows in moist soils and wet meadows near springs, lakes or perennial streams where vegetation is relatively open and not overgrazed. The Utah ladies '-tresses has tuberous roots and eight to 20 inch sterns, narrow leaves and flowers consisting of three to 15 small white or ivory colored flowers clustered into a spike arrangement at the top of the stem. Presently, ten populations totalling about 6,000 plants exist in three general areas of the United States. The Colorado River drainage in eastern Utah and the eastern Great Basin of western Utah and adjacent ad-jacent Nevada are two of these areas. It is believed that alteration of riparian habitat causes the extinction extinc-tion of historic populations but such human-related activities as collection, col-lection, overgrazing and trampling, and general destruction of habitat have contributed to its decline. . The size of individual populations varies greatly each year, with reproductive maturity not until somewhere between five and 10 years. A mature plant does not flower every year, so if someone were to take the flowers one year, it could eliminate the plant's reproductive attempt for several years. Historically known to occur in low elevation riparian areas in Colorado, Utah and Nevada, most of the species western populations popula-tions along the Wasatch Front of northern Utah and half of its historical sites in Colorado have been destroyed. |