Project Overview:

Quercus boyntonii (QUBO), commonly known as Boynton’s Oak or Alabama Sandstone Oak, is a rare tree reported from a six-county range in central Alabama (Figure 1). It is listed as an S1G1 species indicating the highest level of conservation need at a state and global level. Throughout its restricted range, occurrences of QUBO are small, geographically isolated, and declining. Acorn production is often low and may be influenced by the species clonal tendency in the localities with extremely small population size. The risk of inbreeding depression is a serious concern due to potentially low genetic variation. Morphology at several localities suggests possible introgression with more common oak species in the vicinity. Additional threats to the species include woody encroachment due to fire suppression in its habitat, invasive plant species competition, degraded habitat from land use changes, drought, and climate change. The Conservation Gap Analysis of US Oaks1 highlights conservation gaps for QUBO based on the life history traits and threats facing the species, and indicates that acorn collections for this species are underrepresented in ex situ collections across the country. 

Botanic gardens, arboreta, universities, and other cultural organizations from across the country are interested in supporting rare oak conservation and are committed to growing and maintaining high quality documentation of conservation collections. In an effort to better understand distribution of this species and increase documented holdings of this species in living collections, Huntsville Botanical Garden collaborated with Auburn University Davis Arboretum to scout populations, assess their health, and collect acorns, when present, for propagation and distribution. This project has enabled the collection of well-documented wild origin plants from across the range of the species. Eleven institutions across the range of the species and eastern US agreed to accession the living specimens resulting from this project’s acorn collections into their long-term collections. The result is wide spread ex-situ genetic conservation for this narrowly endemic AL species. 

Figure 1: Distribution of QUBO range based on herbarium specimens. Source: The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). North American Plant Atlas.