National Collection Spotlight: Stones River Bladderpod

Meet the Stones River Bladderpod (Paysonia stonensis), a critically imperiled species endemic to Rutherford County, Tennessee, found along the floodplains of the Stones River and its tributaries. This rare annual is a showy member of the mustard family and produces lovely, fragrant white flowers.

Stones River Bladderpod requires habitat disturbance in order to complete its life-cycle — a cycle that has been threatened by development. Historically, the floodplain habitat where Stones River Bladderpod was found was maintained by regular flooding, which removed competitive perennial grasses and woody plants. With alterations to the waterways in this region, flooding no longer maintains the habitat this plant needs. Some years, this species is quite abundant locally, but virtually absent in others.

Stones River Bladderpod is stewarded by CPC Conservation Partner Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT), and as of February 2025 they hold 8 accessions in their seed bank consisting of 1,912 seeds collected from Rutherford County, Tennessee, and cultivated garden beds.

In 2021, CPC contracted MOBOT to recollect seed from a population currently held in long term orthodox seed storage as part of an IMLS-funded seed longevity experiment. The National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation will evaluate how germination tested viability and RNA Integrity of seed lots decline over time in storage.

Use our Rare Plant Finder Tool to discover which native plants near you are at risk – and which have dedicated conservationists within our network working to safeguard their existence. You can run an advanced search by location, common or scientific name, plant family or type, which CPC institution stewards the species, its legal status, and more criteria. View the plant profiles in our database to learn more about what is being done by conservation scientists to save these plants!