6 Arnoldia 78/3 « February 2021 
private land adjacent to a new housing develop- 
ment. The development company established a 
conservation easement to protect Scotts Valley 
polygonum and another endangered species, 
Scotts Valley spineflower (Chorizanthe robusta 
var. hartwegii). Both species are in the buck- 
wheat family (Polygonaceae). In 2015, no Scotts 
Valley polygonum were found at this site, and 
it wasn’t until 2020 that the number of plants 
went above four hundred, less than 25 percent 
of the population observed in 1997. 
In the past, Scotts Valley polygonum has been 
documented at two nearby locations, but no 
specimens have been observed there in recent 
years. One of these locations is a special eco- 
logical preserve adjacent to Scotts Valley High 
School, where the polygonum has not been 
observed since 2015. The site is fenced and 
managed to support the species, but we have 
limited hope it will reappear on its own. 
When my colleagues and I could finally 
return to the field, pandemic protocols required 
all participants to travel solo in vehicles and 
to maintain at least a six-foot distance from 
one another when working at the sites. I was 
fortunate to work with two other botanists, 
Kathy Lyons and Jaymee Marty, at the easement 
site on August 7. We declared ourselves free 
of COVID-19 symptoms and signed liability 
waivers for the landowner. The plants occupied 
an area of less than forty square feet, scattered 
across an undulating grassland. We worked for 
hours on hands and knees making a modest 
seed collection from the less than five hundred 
plants—all that is left in the world. 
As we collected the tiny seeds from the plants 
(removing only a small percentage of the seed 
set), we remarked on how it almost felt normal 
to be in the field again, despite the pandemic. 
Travel restrictions had resulted in a huge reduc- 
tion in the number of cars on the road, which 
meant that, as a side benefit, travel between 
Berkeley and Scotts Valley flowed along at the 
speed limit, instead of crawling through typical 
Silicon Valley gridlock. Travel each way took 
one hour instead of the usual three. 
A few weeks after our work, the CZU Light- 
ning Complex wildfire in Santa Cruz and San 
Mateo Counties blackened over eighty-six thou- 
sand acres, starting on August 16 and continu- 
ing through September 22. The evacuation zone 
included the two historic polygonum sites. The 
only extant site, from which the seeds had been 
collected, was on the margin of the evacuation 
zone, just across a four-lane highway. It could 
have easily been different. The fire burned so 
hot in places that any seeds present in the soil 
were cooked. During the fire we anxiously 
checked the maps. It was a great relief to learn 
that the polygonum sites did not burn. 
Our purpose for collecting seeds was two- 
fold: first, to create a conservation seed bank 
as a backup in case the population is lost for 
any reason, and second, to produce more seeds 
by growing plants in a nursery environment. 
This amplification of seed numbers may make 
it possible both to reestablish the plants at their 
historic sites and to augment the numbers of 
plants within the conservation easement. 
In November, propagator Susan Malisch at 
the University of California Botanical Garden 
sowed one-third of the polygonum seeds from 
our seedbank. As of late January 2021, over 85 
percent germination has been observed. Each 
seed was sown individually to minimize root 
disturbance when the plants are moved into 
larger containers. The plants aren’t likely to 
grow larger than six inches tall and perhaps two 
inches across—giants compared to the plants in 
habitat, where they are crowded together and 
typically grow about one and a half inches tall. 
We look forward to a successful crop of 
Scotts Valley polygonum in 2021. If all goes as 
planned, we will have thousands of seeds to use 
in saving this species from extinction. Wildfires 
and other threats still pose an incredible risk 
to the species, but with a robust conservation 
seedbank and the knowledge of how to grow the 
plants to reproductive size, we can safeguard 
its future. Botanists are paying close attention, 
and Scotts Valley polygonum is no longer over- 
looked. Next November, we plan to work with 
the federal Recovery Implementation Team— 
a team established by the Fish and Wildlife 
Service—to place seeds back into the habitat. 
Holly Forbes is the curator of the University of California 
Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Support for the Scotts 
Valley polygonum project is provided by the Ventura 
Office of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. 
