SBGG have been safeguarding indexed material since 1997 in both potted collections and raised beds. GADNR has designated SBGG as the official safeguarding institution for this species since 2002.

The State Botanic Garden of Georgia collected seeds 2015 and 2016 for safeguarding ex situ and for return to protected land owned by The Nature Conservancy of Georgia. Generations continue to be reared at the SBGG.

New plants of this species have been located illustrating need for on-going mapping and management as habitat is opened. 

The Nature Conservancy has been burning their site with great success burning annually every year except 2016 because of local drought. A safeguarding site was planted in 2014 on TNC land, mapped and tracked by students from Georgia Southern University examining survival with outplanting. Timber plantation populations continue to decline at a rate greater than 90%.

A new plan involves a study documenting how this species can thrive within timber harvest programs with a few tweaks of the land preparation for planting timber protocols. Conservation partners for this project include US Fish & Wildlife Athens and Charleston Field Offices and at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Nongame Conservation Section, and Botanical Guardian volunteers.

The State Botanic Garden of Georgia collected seeds 2015 and 2016 for safeguarding ex situ and for return to protected land owned by The Nature Conservancy of Georgia. Generations continue to be reared at the SBGG.

Due to the drastic reduction in population size, research has found that hairy rattleweed produces many fewer seeds than a common, closely related Baptisia species and its seeds are also heavily eaten by weevils. Another study found that plants require a relatively open canopy to flower, a condition difficult to sustain in the populations that occur in pine plantations (Chafin et. al. 2016).

Known only from a 260 square km area of the lower Coastal Plain of Georgia, this species' native habitat overlaps with pine plantation managed for pulpwood. Some of the management techniques appear to be compatible with maintaining the open habitat this species' requires.

Threats include: fire suppression, lowering of water table, site drainage, logging and conversion to pine plantations, herbicide and fertilizer use by timber industry, seed predation by weevils, and canopy closure leading to loss of sunlight and reduced fruit/seed product.

26 populations remain in the Brantley and Wayne Counties, GA, but the populations are declining.

SBGG have been safeguarding indexed material since 1997 in both potted collections and raised beds. GADNR has designated SBGG as the official safeguarding institution for this species since 2002. SBGG have sent indexed seeds to North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG) for long term seed storage and will be recollecting seeds in the Fall of 2013 to increase the ex situ safeguarding collections at SBGG and in seed storage at NCBG. SBGG are following this work with an in situ safeguarding study initiated in 2011, putting plants in the ground during the Winter of 2013 (Feb-Mar) within the original range of the species, working with private landowners and USFWS Field Office in Athens, Georgia.