Who pollinates whom? That is a question the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and partners are trying to answer to help recover a rare plant in the Pacific Northwest.
Spalding’s catchfly is a threatened plant species found in parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, as well as scattered locations in Montana and British Columbia. It sports light-colored flowers while other portions of the plant are covered in dense, sticky hairs that frequently trap dust and insects, giving this species the common name "catchfly".
The plant was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2001 due to threats it faces from development, grazing, and notably, invasive species invasive species
An invasive species is any plant or animal that has spread or been introduced into a new area where they are, or could, cause harm to the environment, economy, or human, animal, or plant health. Their unwelcome presence can destroy ecosystems and cost millions of dollars.
Learn more about invasive species .
Invasive plants compete with native ones for resources like space, light, and water. However, native plants often also face fierce competition for the valuable time and attention of pollinators,which are crucial for plant reproduction.
Accordingly, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is partnering with Washington State University on research to identify pollinators that are important to Spalding’s catchfly while also identifying invasive plants that contend for those same pollinators.
Taking place at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge and Fairchild Air Force Base in eastern Washington, this new research will help prioritize invasive plants for control or eradication and other management actions for Spalding’s catchfly.
Information about who may be pollinating Spalding’s catchfly is being gathered in several ways:
- Direct observation- Observations are being made on which pollinators visit Spalding’s catchfly and surrounding plants.
- Traps- Pollinators are being collected using traps specifically designed for insect studies. Traps consist of either small colorful bowls, or funnel-shaped lids secured on a collection bucket. These pollinators will then be used to expand a list and build a genetic database.
- eDNA- Environmental DNA or “eDNA” is genetic material that is shed by organisms into the environment and collected from environmental samples rather than directly sampled from an individual organism.
In this case, researchers will clip petals from the catchfly plants to sequence pollinator DNA and compare that DNA to the database to identify the pollinator species. The eDNA and other information will be used to create a plant-pollinator interaction map that will illustrate which pollinators are visiting which plants.
During the preliminary field season in 2024, four Spalding’s catchfly pollinators were identified, including three species not previously known to pollinate the plant. Research will continue in 2025, with hopes of shedding further light on the complex web of relationships.
