Rare Species Guide

  Synonyms

Claytonia caroliniana var. lewisii, Claytonia caroliniana var. spatulifolia

  Basis for Former Listing

Claytonia caroliniana (Carolina spring beauty) is distributed in the Appalachian Mountains from northern Georgia through New England; in the northern portions of the Great Lakes states; in the northwest corner of Arkansas; and from southwestern Newfoundland across southern Quebec and Ontario (Davis 1966; Kartesz 2010). In Minnesota, C. caroliniana is fairly narrowly distributed within 30 miles of Lake Superior. There is one historic outlier twice that far inland, an 1893 collection from Tower, Minnesota. Claytonia caroliniana was listed as a state special concern species in 1984.

  Basis for Delisting

When C. caroliniana was designated a special concern species, this small woodland plant was believed to be largely restricted to old-growth northern hardwood forests along the North Shore of Lake Superior. While the species' range is limited to extreme northeastern Minnesota, targeted rare plant surveys over the past two decades have resulted in the discovery of many more populations in a broader range of forested habitats. Claytonia caroliniana is now known to be more common and widely distributed in Minnesota than was formerly believed. Claytonia caroliniana was delisted in 2013.

  References and Additional Information

Davis, R. J. 1966. The North American perennial species of Claytonia. Brittonia 18:285-303.

Doyle, J. J., and J. L. Doyle. 1988. Natural interspecific hybridization in eastern North American Claytonia. American Journal of Botany 75:1238-1246.

Fassett, N. 1976. Spring flora of Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin. 424 pp.

Gleason, H. A., and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. Second Edition. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York. 910 pp.

Kartesz, J. T. 2010. The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). North American Plant Atlas. . Accessed 18 January 2011.

Miller, J. M. 2003. Claytonia. Pages 465-475 in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, editors. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, New York, New York.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2003. Field guide to the native plant communities of Minnesota: the Laurentian mixed forest province. Ecological Land Classification Program, Minnesota County Biological Survey, and Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul, Minnesota. 352 pp.

Motten, A. F., D. R. Campbell, D. E. Alexander, and H. L. Miller. 1981. Pollination effectiveness of specialist and generalist visitors to a North Carolina population of Claytonia virginica. Ecology 62:1278-1287.

Schemske, D. W. 1977. Flowering phenology and seed set in Claytonia virginica (Portulacaceae). Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 104:254-263.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2012. Statement of need and reasonableness. Division of Ecological and Water Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul. 337 pp.