Field Expeditions in Support of Texas Red Oaks

Oak are a diverse and ecologically important group of woody plants found throughout much of North America. One area of high speciation is Texas. Over the past two years the GCCO has assisted with the coordination and prioritization of work to delimit species and conduct priority on-the-ground conservation action for some of the world’s rarest oaks. These trips represent a broad collaboration led by The Morton Arboretum and the U.S. Botanic Gardens with multiple partner organizations including, but not limited to, Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories & Arboretum, NatureServe, the San Antonio Botanical Garden, and Sul Ross State University. Two collection trips were conducted in 2021 to gather fresh and dried leaf material for molecular analysis of the group. Material collected included Q. emoryi, Q. graciliformis, Q. gravesii, & Q. robusta. The molecular analysis is still ongoing but will be foundational to our understanding of what species exist and are worth conservation action. Two trips were conducted in 2022. The first was an expedition to attempt rediscovery of the possibly extinct Quercus tardifolia, a global single-site endemic known from only Boot Canyon in Big Bend National Park, where the last known individual died in 2007. One of the expedition team members, Michael Eason, rediscovered a single-tree, and later found another, smaller tree near Boot Canyon. After this rediscovery, another team member, Kelsey Wogan, discovered another tree many hundreds of miles outside of Big Bend. In early 2023, a second trip was made to implement ex situ conservation activities on all three trees to help prevent their extinction.