White Bladderpod

(Lesquerella pallida)

Date of Listing: Endangered, 1987

© Photo courtesy Paul M. Montgomery

After its initial discovery in 1830, white bladderpod escaped detection again until 1981, when it was rediscovered by botanists searching for a different rare species. White bladderpod is apparently restricted to seasonally wet, basic soils in naturally treeless glades on top of the Weches Formation, and is apparently intolerant of acid soils in surrounding forested areas.

Note: Special thanks to the photographers for providing images of Texas endangered and threatened plants. All rights to these images are reserved. Educational use permitted.

This species is known from only a few sites in one county. It is restricted to the Weches formation, a geologic formation composed of glauconite. One site was destroyed by mining the glauconite for use as a road base.

Size:

Upright to spreading annual 2-25 inches tall.

Habitat (where it lives):

Seasonally wet, sandy, comparatively high pH soils in natural openings or glades within pine-oak forests underlain by Weches Formation ironstone/glauconite.

Range (where found in Texas):

San Augustine County, east Texas.

Reproduction:

Flowering April-May; seed dispersal accomplished before mid-summer.

Population Numbers:

Seven known populations in San Augustine County.