Innovation Anthology #529:
The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring program has discovered another first, and that’s a tiny plant called the impoverished pinweed.
Dr. Tyler Cobb is with the Royal Alberta Museum and is Director of the Processing Centre for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute.
DR. TYLER COBB: It’s never been recorded from Alberta. And the specimen itself is only the sixth of its kind ever collected. It is known from Saskatchewan, from the southern shores of Lake Athabasca and some related species found in Manitoba. But no, this one has never been found in Alberta. So it’s extremely rare.
The very rare impoverished pinweed was collected from an ABMI sample site on the southern shores of Lake Athabasca. It stands only five to ten centimeters tall.
DR. TYLER COBB: It’s in the sustacea, so Its in the rock rose family. So it’s a spindly little plant. fairly well adapted to growing in very windy, disturbed soil conditions. It has sort of sparse hairs on the leaves. The flowers are very subtle and pale. And yeah, there’s really not much to say. It’s an understated beauty, I would say.
Dr. Tyler Cobb says the discovery of the very rare impoverished pinweed shows the benefit of programs like the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring surveys.
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I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Program Date: 2013-01-29