HAIRY WATER-CLOVER Also known as the Hairy Pepperwort. Marsilea vestita Family Marsileaceae - Pepperwort Family Division Pterophyta - Ferns Risk Status Official status The Hairy Water-clover is on British Columbia's Red List (CDC = G5 S1). Risk Status Distinguishing Features Distribution Habitat Why is it endangered? Biology Sources for more information Museum Specimens Image Credits: Hairy Water-Clover sketch in The Ferns and Fern-allies of British Columbia, T.M.C. Taylor, 1979. Historical facts The Hairy Water-clover is extremely rare. It was first collected in the province in 1889 at Kamloops and not found again for sixty years until relocated there. Recently, specimens have been collected near Vernon. Distinguishing features This fern's rhizomes are wide-creeping and clothed with reddish-brown, or tawny, silky hairs at the nodes. The clover-like leaves are 4-20 cm tall with slender petioles that are hairy at first and later smooth. The blades are 1-3 cm broad and leaflets 5-15 mm long with broadly wedge-shaped margins that are hairy at first. The peduncles are short and mostly free from the petiole; the sporocarps are solitary, 4-8 mm long, 3-6 mm broad and at first very densely hairy, later more or less smooth. Distribution Map Red dots indicate specimen records or confirmed breeding sites. British Columbia The Hairy Water-clover is found in southern British Columbia around the Thompson Plateau and Shuswap Highlands (Kamloops, Vernon, Osoyoos Lake). North America Outside of British Columbia, the Hairy Water-clover is found south to southern California and east to southern Alberta, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Habitat Hairy Water-clover prefers the edge of ponds and rivers and marshy places. Why is it endangered? This species along with others of the grasslands communities are endangered for a number of reasons. Livestock grazing, range re-seeding and off-road recreation have modified much of the remaining "undeveloped" grassland areas. In addition, cultivation, agricultural and urban development, prescribed burning, forest encroachment, road and trail development, alien plant and animal species introductions, and hydro-electric power projects have caused outright, irreversible losses of native grassland species. Because grasslands have been so influenced by human activities, a relatively large number of wildlife species associated with grasslands (including this plant species) are listed as threatened or endangered. Because of these combined influences and the relatively limited distribution of grasslands, "ancient" grasslands represent a much more endangered space in British Columbia than do "ancient" or old-growth forests. Biology Male and female spores are produced in blackish ellipsoidal structures termed sporocarps, borne on branching stalks at or near stipe-base. Sources for more information Related On-line Sites to Visit Publications The Ferns and Fern-allies of BC, TMC Taylor, RBCM, 1979, P. 48 The SOCAP Workshop Summary, The Nature Trust, 1989. Living Landscape Directory of Researchers and their projects Museum Specimens this section sponsored by: Industry Canada

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