National Collection of Imperiled Plants

CPC National Collection Plant Profile

Photographer:

Kathy Rice

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CPC National Collection Plant Profile

Genistidium dumosum

Family:	Fabaceae
Common Name:	brush-pea
Author:	I.M. Johnston
Growth Habit:	Shrub
CPC Number:	2000

Distribution
Protection
Conservation
References

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Photographer: Kathy Rice

Genistidium dumosum is Not Sponsored

Primary custodian for this plant in the CPC National Collection of Endangered Plants is:

Desert Botanical Garden

Kathleen C. Rice contributed to this Plant Profile.

Genistidium dumosum

Genistidium dumosum is a small shrub known from only three locations in in the United States (Poole 1982). G. dumosum is not protected because additional populations are thought to occur in Mexico (Poole 1989). Leaves are drought-deciduous and appear only after a rain. This habit gives the shrub and unusual mixed appearance of new and dead stems. Small yellow flowers grow in racemes and fruits are pods approximately 2 cm long.

Distribution & Occurrence

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State Range

Texas

Habitat

Plants grow in full sun on rocky limestone, southwest-facing hillsides in Chihuahuan Desert scrub, with Coryphantha albicolumnaria, Agave lechuguilla, Hechtia texensis, Ephedra viridis, and Echinocereus dasyacanthus (Poole 1982).

Distribution

This species is known from Texas and Mexico (Poole 1982).

Number Left

There are three sites in Texas and additional but unconfirmed sites in Mexico (Poole 1982).

Protection

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Global Rank:	G1	11/21/1997	Guide to Global Ranks
Federal Status:	SC	1/19/1996	Guide to Federal Status
Recovery Plan:	No

State/Area Protection

State/Area	Rank	Status	Date
Mexico	*FR83		8/26/1988
Texas	S1		4/2/1985

Conservation, Ecology & Research

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Ecological Relationships

Unknown.

Threats

Possible threats to the only site that has been visited include routine maintenance and stochastic events, such as drought (Poole 1982).

Current Research Summary

� Propagation of this species is a continuing effort at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Cuttings were made in 1990, and rooted, but later died during transplant attempts. even seeds collected from a population in 1991 were scarified and planted. Only three of the seeds matured. In 1994, cuttings were again made, rooted, and plants flowered. Fruits formed, but failed to develop, dropping off before reaching half their length. The cuttings failed to emerge from dormancy in 1995 and finally died. It is possible that the number of plants in this population is too small for sexual reproduction.
� To date, Desert Botanical Garden has 59 seeds of G. dumosum.
� Plants have been grown to flower ex situ, but have never produced seeds. Stem cuttings have been rooted--a relatively low percentage (<10%) formed roots following collection, leafed out, flowered, and produced only empty fruits. The cuttings then entered winter dormancy, declined and died. The site at Six-shooter Hill is close enough to the highway to easily maintain as a potential augmentation, but the environmental pressures are extremely challenging.
(Desert Botanical Garden 2000)

Current Management Summary

Plants are being monitored regularly by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. At the Six-shooter Hill population, there are only fifteen plants remaining. Seeds have been observed on only one plant, in one year during the eight years that Desert Botanical Garden staff has visited. (Desert Botanical Garden 2000)

Research Management Needs

Surveys of sites in Mexico are needed in order to determine if U.S. populations require protection. Research needs include aspects of reproductive biology and ecology and well as understanding biotic/abiotic interactions.

Ex Situ Needs

References

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Books (Single Authors)

Correll, D.S.; Johnston, M.C. 1970. Manual of the vascular plants of Texas. Renner: Texas Research Foundation. 1881p.

Kartesz, J.T. 1993. Species distribution data for vascular plants of 70 geographical areas, from unpublished data files at the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

Kartesz, J.T. 1996. Species distribution data at state and province level for vascular plant taxa of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (accepted records), from unpublished data files at the North Carolina Botanical Garden.

Powell, A.M. 1988. Trees and shrubs of Trans-Pecos Texas, including Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains National Parks. Big Bend National Park, Texas: Big Bend Natural History Association. 536p.

Vines, R.A. 1960. Trees, shrubs and woody vines of the southwest. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1104p.

Warnock, B.H. 1970. Wildflowers of the Big Bend Country, Texas. Alpine, Texas: Sul Ross State Univ. 157p.

Warnock, B.H. 1977. Wildflowers of the Davis Mountains and the Marathon Basin, Texas. Alpine, Texas: Sul Ross State Univ. 274p.

Books (Sections)

Kartesz, J.T. 1999. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the U.S., Canada, and Greenland. In: Kartesz, J.T.; Meacham, C.A., editors. Synthesis of the North American Flora, Version 1.0. North Carolina Botanical Garden. Chapel Hill, NC.

Conference Proceedings

Poole, J.; Janssen, G.K. Managing and Monitoring Rare and Endangered Plants on Highway Rights-of-way in Texas. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-GTR-283. Proceedings of the Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference; September 11-14; Flagstaff, AZ. In: Maschinski, J.; Hammond, H.D.; Holter, L., editors. 1996. USDA and US Forest Service. p 8-12.

Electronic Sources

(2000). Center for Plant Conservation's National Living Collection--Profiles. Desert Botanical Garden. http://www.dbg.org/Collections/cpc.html. Accessed: 2002.

Reports

Clark, J.J.; Powell, A.M. 1983. Status report on Genistidium dumosum. Albuquerque, New Mexico: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. p.5.

Poole, J.M. 1992. Status report on Genistidium dumosum. Albuquerque, New Mexico: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

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This profile was updated on 3/4/2010