The Rarest Wildflower

The Rarest Wildflower: Oconee Bells

One of the rarest of American wildflowers occurs right in our backyard and is blooming now. Oconee Bells, or Shortia, is a small but beautiful woodland wildflower. Shortia occurs in only seven counties in NC, SC, and GA, and Transylvania County is one of the locations graced by its presence.

There are several local populations of the plants that originated from rescued individuals. Many years ago, the founding plants were removed from the site of road construction and moved to safer locales, establishing new populations. Shortia transplants well, unlike some of our other spectacular wildflowers such as the various terrestrial orchids, and is surprisingly hardy for such a rare plant. Once a population is established, it spreads vegetatively with rhizomes, similar to the growth of strawberries, and tends to grow in dense aggregations, forming nearly pure stands.

Under natural conditions, Shortia grows along stream banks in moist, rich soils. Flowering requires an open understory that allows light to reach the ground, but the seeds need moisture to germinate and are usually found in mossy pockets. These conditions typically occur along streams. Shortia’s pollinators are not reported, and understanding how the flowers are pollinated might explain the frequency of seed production. It is believed that Shortia naturally colonizes disturbed sites, such as stream banks that have been swept clear of competitors by floods or areas where trees have fallen, allowing light to reach the ground. The principal locations, including the original site from which it was collected, are along the Keowee River and its tributaries.

Shortia was discovered by one of the two most prolific botanists who combed these Appalachian hills in search of new plants. Andre Michaux, originally a Frenchman who settled in Charleston, SC, first found the plant on 8 December 1788 somewhere in the mountains of the Carolinas. Two other American botanists, Asa Gray and John Torrey, named the plant in 1842 after the Kentucky botanist Charles Short when they found a single, flowerless specimen in Michaux’s collection in Paris. They knew that no one since Michaux had seen the plant, and realizing its significance, they began to search for a flowering specimen of the rare plant. As the several collecting expeditions all ended in vain, the elusive plant, like the Holy Grail, began to take on mythical proportions. Finally, after nearly 100 years, a 17-year old boy named George Hyams rediscovered the plant in 1877 in McDowell County, NC. Other botanists and historians carefully retraced Michaux’s route and followed the descriptions in his journals, leading them to the original source of his specimen along the upper Keowee River, near the old Cherokee town of Jocassee, in Oconee County, SC.

The story of the legendary plant abounds with ironies. One is that Charles Short, the frontier botanist after whom Shortia is named, never saw the plant. He died 14 years before it was re-discovered. Another irony is that Michaux’s original collection location is now submerged below the waters of Lake Jocassee, extinguishing one of the few populations as well as the discovery site of this rare plant.

Shortia is closely related to Galax and the leaves of both plants look similar: evergreen, glossy, low-growing, and rounded. Shortia’s leaves, however, are shinier and more obviously veined, with toothed edges. The scientific name Shortia galacifolia refers to this similarity of leaves; folia means leaf.

Unlike Galax’s tall, slender spike of tiny white flowers, each spike the form of a pipe cleaner, the inch-long flowers of Shortia are borne singly on salmon-colored stalks that project 4-6 inches above the ground. The bell-shaped flower itself has five waxy, pinkish-white, fringed petals surrounding five yellow, shield-shaped anthers. A long crane’s-bill-like stigma projects outward from the center of the flower.

Most of the local populations are on private land, but a nice example is not too far away, in Clemson University’s Botanical Garden. Not only is this pretty wildflower rare, but its bloom is among the earliest of native plants, a longed-for indicator of spring. Keep an eye out for pollinators and let me know if you see any.

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