I had a special treat today and got to photograph a supposed extirpated plant in Ohio. This species Orobanche riparia as it is called now was found at Shawnee Lookout in South Western Ohio by Jim Decker and Dan Boone. This species which was known as Louisiana broomrape (Orobanche ludoviciana) and was thought to be one species by earlier botanist but now is divided into two species an upland species and a bottom land species which is the one that was found. This kind of find doesn't happen very often so great job to Jim and Dan for finding this rare species. If you want to read more about this species copy this address and past it in your browser and read a research paper on this new species.
http://www.brit.org/fileadmin/Publications/JBotResInstTexas_3_1/03-11_Collins_etal_Orobanche_JBRIT3_1__02.pdf
An update on this species, Dan Boone and other botanists met at Shawnee Lookout today Saturday September 4th to see this plant and a quick search around the area uncovered ten more plants. This species is a parasitic plant on ragweed and is probably more common than we think. Now that this species has been discovered again my guess is by the time the entire group of Ohio botanist do more searching and find more populations this species status will go from extirpated to endangered and maybe even become removed from the list of rare plants.
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