B-1 



MONITORING SILENE SPALDINGII ON 

 DANCING PRAIRIE PRESERVE: 1988 PROGRESS REPORT 



Introduction and Methods 



On July 23, 1987 four permanent transects were established 

 on the proposed Dancing Prairie Preserve in order to monitor a 

 population of Silene spaldingii and begin to gather data on the 

 life history of this rare plant. On August 1, 1988, Bernie Hall 

 and I reread these transects following the methods outlined in 

 Lesica (1987) . Codes used in recording life history data are as 

 follows : 



S Seedling Only a basal rosette present 



J Juvenile A non-reproductive individual with only 



sterile stems 



I Inflorescence Records the number of flowering stems per 



mature individual 



S Sterile Records the number of sterile stems per 



mature individual 



P Predated Records the number of flowers suffering 



predation 



A Aborted Records the number of unpredated flowers that 



did not produce a mature fruit 



F Fruit Records the number of flowers that produced a 



mature fruit recognized by the presence of a 

 large, swollen ovary 



Results and Discussion 



Fecundity data for the two years are presented in Table 1. 

 The number of plants in the transects decreased by nearly 1/2 

 from 1987 to 1988. In addition the total number of flowers and 

 fruits produced declined by nearly an order of magnitude. Part 

 of this decline is due to the presence of fewer mature plants, 

 and part is due to a decrease in the number of mature fruit 

 produced per mature plant. The mean number of flowers per mature 

 plant stayed approximately the same. 



A comparison of individual plant performance between the two 

 years are presented in Table 2. Twenty-seven plants present in 

 1987 could not be located in 1988, and nine plants not recorded 

 in 1987 were present in 1988. As measured by flower and fruit 

 production, nearly all the plants declined in vigor. 



Much of the decline in plant vigor indicated by these 

 results can probably be attributed to the dry 1987 fall, and hot, 



