Search / Plant Profile / Amsonia grandiflora

Plant Profile

Arizona Slimpod (Amsonia grandiflora)

Flowers are composed of five white petals tinged with lavender blue. They are fragrant and salverform, with the tube from 1-2 cm in length. Photo Credit: Kathy Rice

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Apocynaceae
State: AZ, MX, SI
Nature Serve ID: 128514
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 03/14/1986

Description:

Amsonia grandiflora is a showy herbaceous perennial with milky sap and numerous erect stems arising in a dense clump from a long lived root. The foliage and flowers are entirely glabrous. Leaves are alternate, vary in width, from lanceolate towards the base of the plant, to almost hair-like towards the top, 4-12 cm long. The flowers are borne in terminal clusters of 5-10, commonly with 15-30 inflorescences per plant. Flowers are white tinged with lavender blue, fragrant, and salverform, with the narrow tube from 16-19 mm in length, and five spreading lobes. The tube is constricted at the mouth, and stamens are inserted high in the tube. The two distinct ovaries mature into narrow follicles 7-9 cm long that become papery with age, and are without constrictions and are acuminate. The seeds are corky in texture, clyindrical with truncated ends. This species differe from other members of the genus in Arizona by the longer flowers. The other two species in the region (not known to be sympatric) typically have much shorter (less than 1.25-2.54 cm) flowers and broader leaves.

Where is Arizona Slimpod (Amsonia grandiflora) located in the wild?

Habitat:

A. grandiflora grows at 3,900 to 4,500 ft. on canyon bottoms in southern Arizona oak woodlands dominated by Quercus emoryi ( Warren et al. 1989, Gori et al. 1990, USFWS 1996) . Occasionally, populations are found on level alluvial soils that are sandy or gravelly; in other sites, they are found on rocky hillsides (Phillips 1991). During winter, plants become completely dormant, dying back to the woody crown (USFWS 1996). Adapted to rock fall disturbances. The substrate is level alluvial soils that are sandy or gravelly, or rocky hilsides composed of rhyolite, granite, quaternary sediments and possibly metamorphosed limestone.

Distribution:

The few populations are located in extreme south-central Arizona (USFWS 1996), northern Sonora, Durango, Mexico. The range within Arizona is in the Patagonia and Atascosa/Pajarito Mountains, Santa Cr

States & Provinces:

Arizona Slimpod can be found in Arizona, Mexico, Sonora

Which CPC Partners conserve Arizona Slimpod (Amsonia grandiflora)?

Desert Botanical Garden

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 06/09/17

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

08/17/2020

A. grandiflora is easily grown from seed, and has a high reproductive potential. Cuttings are difficult, but not impossible. The time of year that cuttings are taken probably plays a major part in the successful rooting of cuttings. Plants in cultivation produce seeds readily, but must be separated from other Amsonia species to ensure that cross-pollination between species does not occur. Desert Botanical Garden has approximately 10,400 seeds in storage from three populations, and has produced 3,000 seeds in cultivation by controlled cross-pollination.

08/17/2020

08/17/2020

Desert Botanical Garden has approximately 10,400 seeds in storage from three populations, and has produced 3,000 seeds in cultivation by controlled cross-pollination.

08/17/2020

Desert Botanical Garden has approximately 10,400 seeds in storage from three populations, and has produced 3,000 seeds in cultivation by controlled cross-pollination.

Nature Serve Biotics

05/02/2017

Very patchily distributed in the Patagonia and Atascosa/Pajarito Mountains of Arizona and in northern Mexico. 15 to 20 dense, discrete populations were known as of December 1994. In 2012, eleven known populations, although Tom van Devender in Laurenzi and Spence (2012) reported over 25 occurrences.

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

The plants may be trampled by grazing animals, but it is unlikely that they are actually eaten, as they have milky sap and are unpalatable (USFWS 1996). Plants in cultivation at Desert Botanical Garden are avoided by rodents, and have few insect predator

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

Populations and individual plants are few in number, with 20 known localities (USFWS 1998).

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

coronado National Forest and private land. Populations are few and relatively small; this species is apparently not palatable to livestock. The main management action would be avoiding direct impact on the populations. This species might make a good landscape plant. There are monitoring sites near Patatonia that are outliers of the more extensive population. There is one unusual site in a valley bottom, but this is still rock alluvial soil. The plants come back vigorously after being burned.

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

Reproductive biology studies (pollinator watches), and hybridization experimentation with other Amsonia species would be beneficial. Known populations need monitoring.

Kathleen C. Rice

01/01/2010

Plans for the future for A. grandiflora are to continue to investigate the pollination biology and horticultural requirements of the species, and to produce seed in cultivation on plants at Desert Botanical Garden.