Tutwiler’s spleenwort, an endangered fern named after Julia Tutwiler, only grows naturally in a small area of Havana Glen in Hale County, Ala.
John Manion, the Kaul Wildflower garden curator and chairman of the committee for Tutwiler’s Spleenwort, explained that the rare plant grows on several rocks of puddingstone in an area that is smaller than two acres.
“It always grows on vertical surfaces,” Manion said. “The highest count we have ever seen was around 240 plants, which is a bit of an estimate because I am not sure we are seeing every single fern.”
Tutwiler’s spleenwort is currently being grown in several locations within Alabama, as well as out of state, including the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Auburn University’s Davis Arboretum, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum.
“Usually we see the first signs of growth within a couple of months,” Manion said. “The way we are doing it is all under sterile conditions.”
According to Manion there are hundreds of Tutwiler’s spleenworts growing in very early stages in petri dishes.
“If all of those ferns were to survive and mature we would probably have hundreds of the fern, hopefully,” he said.
The biggest challenge in cultivating Tutwiler’s spleenwort is contamination from different types of organisms, Manion explained.
“The worst contaminant is mosses, which tend to be mixed in with the spores,” he said. “We are using methods to semi-sterilize the spores so we get rid of other contaminants and, so far, that has been working very well. Every once in a while we get a little bit of contamination. It is all started in petri dishes. Although, we have started a new method where we take a piece of the puddingstone and sterilize it and put the spores directly on the puddingstone and sealed that inside a container, so we will see how that does.”
The puddingstone found in Havana Glen is a red conglomerate-type rock comprised of chert and other quartz crystals held together by hematite is an important part of Tutwiler’s Spleenwort’s survival.
“When we have gone to the site, where it grows in the wild, we always bring a few pieces of the puddingstone back with us so we can try to grow the fern on it, which we have had good luck doing,” Manion said.
Tests were done on the pudding stone found in Havana Glen to see if it is different from puddingstone found in other areas.
“We did have it analyzed and the results showed us that there is really nothing specific about it compared to other puddingstone,” Manion said. “We were wondering if the pH would be very different or one of the mineral components would be high or low and it really fell within normal parameters.”
Along with having a rare plant like Tutwiler’s Spleenwort, Alabama is also very biodiverse.
“Alabama is the fifth most biodiverse state, and the most biodiverse east of Mississippi,” Manion said. “In Alabama we have 25 species of plants that are endemic. An endemic plant is one that is found only growing in one area or one state. Other states have maybe one or two endemic plants, but we have 25.”
Manion explained that the Botanical Gardens are concerned with the conservation of Tutwiler’s spleenwort.
“We are playing an active role in the conservation of a very rare plant, probably one of the rarest plants in the world because it has never been found growing anywhere else in the world,” he said. “We are very pleased to be playing an active role in that and being proactive in the conservation of this fern.”
For more information about the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, visit bbgardens.org.