The NHIC is government agency responsible for maintaining records and data on all provincially rare flora and fauna in the province of Ontario. Biologists, planners, ecologists, foresters and other professionals use their information and data to monitor, track and develop policies for protection and preservation purposes. The NHIC is linked to a network of Conservation Data Centers (CDC). In Canada, each province typically has it's own CDC. For example, in Alberta the CDC is the Alberta Conservation Information Management System (ACIMS). Alberta has approximately 458 provincially rare plants that are tracked by the ACIMS, where Ontario has over 720 tracked by the NHIC. To be listed as provincially rare in the province plant species must fall within a specific criteria related to the number of records, populations or occurrences. Extremely rare plants may have only 1 - 5 records, populations or occurrences for the entire province and are ranked S1, very rare plants have 6 - 20 records, populations or occurrences with a rank of S2 and rare plants have 21 - 100 records, populations or occurrences with an S3 rank.
Unfortunately, at the present time, no rare plant or vegetation survey protocols exist for Ontario, so professionals are unable to ascertain how and where to search for rare plants while conducting baseline surveys. The University of Alberta in partnership with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute are currently investigating new survey methodology for rare plants. EARTHQUEST shall be putting forth a rare plant survey protocol shortly and has incorporated it into the content of some of the plant certification courses. Stay tuned until further notice as we continue to prepare this much needed document.
This week's mystery plant may be in bloom. The photo depicts seed pods which develop after the flowers fall off.
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