A New Conservation Program for the Endangered Quercus acerifolia

Mark V. Coggeshall, Ryan Russell, and Amy Byrne

Published May 2023 in International Oaks No. 34: 140–148

Abstract

Quercus acerifolia (maple-leaf oak), listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, is distributed across four known isolated populations in west-central Arkansas. Our project, initiated in 2021, focuses on the ex-situ conservation of this species, and contributes to the existing Q. acerifolia metacollection. Our approach is unique as we have planted grafted trees across four spatially separated city parks in Columbia, Missouri, with each clonal population representing one of the four in-situ populations of the species. We believe this approach will facilitate future restoration efforts for Q. acerifolia by serving as a source of acorns derived from each of these clonal – but isolated – populations, to produce seedlings for targeted restoration efforts across the four in-situ populations in Arkansas. To address inbreeding concerns, a new seed orchard is planned in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service by re-propagating genotypes from each of the four different populations which should maximize outcrossing between clonal representatives across all populations. To date, we have produced clonal replicates of 40 Q. acerifolia individuals (10 per population), which were successfully outplanted in fall 2022.

Keywords

Quercus, Lithocarpus, Castanopsis, endangered species, buttresses

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