ERHART, TEMAN* AND MARK V. WILSON. Department of Botany & Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97330. - Population Dynamics Related to Conservation of a Rare Endemic Plant, Kincaid's lupine.
Kincaid's lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii (Smith) Phillips)
is a rare endemic plant of the Willamette Valley. A member of
Fabaceae, the pea family, it is a long-lived perennial plant of native
upland prairie remnants. It was listed as a Threatened species under
the Endangered Species Act just this year, in January. It is an
obligate larval foodplant of a rare butterfly, Fender's blue
butterfly, which was also recently listed as an Endangered species. I
have undertaken several ecological field projects, and laboratory
experiments on Kincaid's lupine biology. I tested the effects of
gamete source on seed production and progeny fitness, with hand
pollination treatments, in two natural populations. Low seed
production and progeny fitness has been observed in many populations.
This is suspected to be a result of possible self-incompatibility and
inbreeding depression in small isolated populations. Pollination
treatments were used as an indirect method to assess the effects of
selfing versus crossing across various genetic distances. I am using
inter-sequence-series repeat primers in a PCR-based method to genotype
sampled plants in the gamete source experiment. These data will allow
me to calculate the genetic distance of crossing treatments, and
correlate them to seed set and progeny performance. These molecular
markers will allow estimation of genetic diversity, and may indicate
population viability concerns. Due to the randomly dispersed sampling
of the genotyped samples, I will also be able to characterize the
extent of clonal growth and spread in the two study populations.
Key words: endemic, hand pollination, inter-sequence-series repeat, Kincaid's, lupine, Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii